PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 


NATHANIEL  C.  FOWLER  JR. 


GIFT   OF 
JiLrs ^    Dwfl vn p    Ym i n o* 


PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 


PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

A  TREATISE  ON  THE 

ART  OF   SELLING   GOODS 


BY 

NATHANIEL   C.  FOWLER,  JR. 

Author  of  "  Starting  in  Life,"  "  Gumption,"  "  The  Boy  —  How 
to  Help  Him  Succeed,"  etc. 


ASSISTED    BY 

TWENTY-NINE  EXPERT  SALESMEN,  SALES-MANAGEES 
AND    PROMINENT   BUSINESS   MEN 


BOSTON 

LITTLE,   BROWN,   AND   COMPANY 
1913 


R, 


Copyright,  1911, 
BY  LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY. 


All  rights  reserved 

GIFT 
»f 


S.  J.  PAKKHILL  &  Co.,  BOSTON,  U.  8.  A. 


A   WORD    AT   THE   START 

THE  art,  or  science,  or  practice  of  salesmanship  can- 
not be  taught  academically  or  automatically,  or  by 
book,  lesson,  or  teacher.  The  concrete  vocations,  — 
bookkeeping,  stenography,  typewriting,  and  the  cleri- 
cal or  mechanical  side  of  business,  —  may  be  wholly 
or  partially  imparted  by  book  or  lesson;  but  the  prac- 
tice of  a  vocational  art,  which  does  not  depend  upon 
definite  rules,  cannot  be  driven  into  anybody  by  rote 
or  regulation. 

While  salesmanship  is  not  independent  of  basic 
principles,  and  while  it  is  dependent  upon  unwritten, 
if  not  written,  law,  its  action  is  so  closely  allied  to  per- 
sonality that  it  cannot  be  presented  either  by  chart 
or  table  of  rules. 

Therefore,  the  author  attempts  to  present  the  great 
principles  and  ethics  of  salesmanship,  a  study  and 
analysis  of  them,  in  a  way  which  he  hopes  will  be 
helpful,  practical,  and  profitable;  and  all  that  he  says 
is  interwoven  and  supplemented  with  the  experience 
of  active  authorities,  who  have  given  the  larger  part 
of  their  lives  to  selling,  on  the  road,  or  behind  the 
counter,  or  to  the  management  of  salesmen  and  sales- 
women. 

M144833 


Vi  A  WORD  AT  THE  START 

Every  word  in  the  book  represents  composite  ex- 
perience, and  not  the  mere  opinions  or  training  of  the 
author  himself.  From  out  of  a  mass  of  experience, 
his  own  and  others',  he  has  attempted  to  present  word 
pictures  of  business  fact. 


TO  WOMEN  READERS  OF  THIS  BOOK 

For  convenience,  and  only  for  convenience,  the  mascu- 
line noun  and  pronoun  have  been  used  in  this  book;  but 
every  word  in  it  is  intended  for  women  as  well  as  for 
men. 

Custom,  as  well  as  convenience,  suggests  this  form. 

The  constant  mention  of  both  sexes  would  be  confusing 
and  require  unnecessary  repetition. 


CONTENTS 

WHAT  is  SALESMANSHIP? 

Page 

Its  position  in  the  economy,  progress,  and  profit  of 
business  as  an  indispensable  wheel  in  the  great  engine 
of  activity.  —  Salesmanship  was  born  at  the  birth  of 
trade,  and  without  it  modern  business-doing  would 
be  impossible 1 

THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  SELLING 

Some  of  the  principles  of  salesmanship.  —  A  semi- 
scientific  analysis  of  the  component  parts  of  the  art 
of  selling  goods.  —  The  elements  of  salesmanship.  — 
The  strength  of  the  whole  is  in  the  harmony  of  the 
parts  10 

WHAT  SALESMANSHIP  OFFERS 

What  salesmanship  offers  at  the  start  and  all  along  the 
line.  —  What  it  may  lead  to.  —  The  important  and 
indispensable  position  occupied  by  the  salesman  in 
the  world  of  business.  —  Perhaps  no  other  vocation 
gives  one  a  better  business  opportunity 21 

KNOWING  YOUR  GOODS 

The  absolute  necessity  of  being  fully  acquainted  with 
what  you  sell  from  the  ground  up,  even  to  the  grow- 
ing of  the  raw  material.  —  How  to  find  out  all  you 
need  to  know  about  what  you  sell.  —  The  impor- 
tance of  knowing  your  goods  cannot  be  over-estimated  25 


x  CONTENTS 

KNOWING  SOMETHING  BESIDES  YOUR  GOODS 

Page 

The  value  of  general  knowledge  and  information,  that 
the  salesman  may  be  able  to  meet  his  customers 
socially  when  occasion  requires  and  converse  with 
them  upon  current  events,  even  during  the  "heats" 
of  business  33 

DIAGNOSING  THE  CUSTOMER 

The  art  of  "sizing-up"  the  customer,  of  discovering  in 
advance  his  characteristics,  his  desires,  and  his  needs. 
—  A  matter  of  great  selling  consequence 38 

THE  INSIDE  SALESMAN 

The  inside,  store,  counter,  or  retail  salesman.  —  How 
he  differs  from  his  brother  on  the  road.  —  His  oppor- 
tunities, and  how  he  may  improve  them 44 

THE  TRAVELING  SALESMAN 

What  he  is.  —  What  he  does.  —  How  he  does  it.  — 
His  chances  of  getting  ahead,  of  becoming  a  manager, 
or  partner,  or  officer  in  the  business.  —  The  hardships 
of  being  constantly  on  the  move 56 

SATISFYING  THE  CUSTOMER 

The  customer's  side  of  the  sale.  —  His  pre-eminent 
rights  and  those  he  will  assume  anyway.  —  The  sell- 
ing necessity  of  catering  to  him,  if  you  would  do 
business 70 

APPROACHING  THE  CUSTOMER 

The  great  commercial  and  selling  value  of  creating  a 
good  first  impression.  —  Salesmen  are  often  judged 
by  the  way  they  appear  at  the  initial  meeting  ...  77 


CONTENTS  xi 

FORCING  A  SALE 

Page 

The  danger  of  using  force  and  coercion.  —  When  they 
may  be  used  and  how  to  use  them.  —  The  difference 
between  force  and  suggestion 82 

EMPLOYER  AND  EMPLOYEE 

Their  relation  to  each  other.  —  Success  is  dependent 
upon  a  getting  together.  —  They  should  be  friends 
and  co-workers 85 

WORKING  FOR  YOURSELF 

No  matter  how  menial  your  position  may  be,  you  are 
primarily  working  for  yourself;  and  the  more  you 
work  for  yourself,  the  more  you  work  for  your 
employer 92 

ANTAGONIZING  THE  CUSTOMER 

Something  always  to  be  carefully  and  persistently 
avoided.  —  The  antagonistical  salesman  cannot  pos- 
sibly succeed.  —  Keep  on  good  terms  with  your 
customer  at  any  reasonable  cost 97 

GETTING  ACQUAINTED  WITH  THE  CUSTOMER 

Business  acquaintanceship  and  friendship.  —  Learn 
about  your  customer,  that  you  may  handle  him  to 
better  mutual  advantage,  and  be  able  to  hold  him 
permanently 103 

PERSONAL  APPEARANCE 

The  public-seeing  side  of  the  salesman.  —  His  dress 
and  the  care  of  his  person.  —  Hints  and  suggestions 
of  selling  value 108 


xii  CONTENTS 

GOOD  NATURE  IN  SELLING 

Page 

A  most  essential  requisite.  —  The  place  it  occupies  on 
the  stage  of  successful  business.  —  Good  nature 
stands  for  good  sales  113 

CONSERVATISM  AND  TAKING  CHANCES 

There  is  safety  in  the  middle  of  the  road.  —  Conser- 
vatism compared  with  liberalism,  progressiveness, 
and  taking  chances.  —  The  right  and  profitable 
mixture  of  both 117 

RESPECT  YOUR  EMPLOYER 

The  place  occupied  by  the  man  you  work  for.  —  His 
importance  and  necessity.  —  The  salesman's  relation 
to  his  employer,  the  one  under  command,  the  other 
in  command.  —  The  respect  rightly  due  to  the  man 
at  the  business  head 121 

DOING  WHAT  You  Do  NOT  HAVE  TO  Do 

The  one  thing  that  puts  you  above  the  men  of  ordinary 
attainment.  —  Almost  anybody  can  do  what  he  is  told 
to  do.  —  The  commanders  of  business  spring  from 
those  who  are  not  satisfied  with  being  simply  faithful 
to  demanded  duty-doing 124 

THE  KNOCKER 

The  knocker  and  the  fault-finder  never  succeed.  —  The 
knocking  salesman  cannot  sell  goods  to  advantage.  — 
He  is  out  of  tune  with  business  principles.  —  The 
difference  between  knocking  and  proper  dissatisfaction  127 


CONTENTS  xiii 

TELLING  THE  TBUTH 

Page 

Truth  and  honesty  are  profitable  commercial  and  sell- 
ing commodities.  —  The  danger  of  misrepresenta- 
tion. —  Honesty  is  the  best  selling  policy 131 

MODESTY  IN  SELLING 

Genuine  and  false  modesty,  reticence,  and  fear.  — 
Their  effect  in  selling  goods.  —  Modesty  as  com- 
pared with  self-respect.  —  The  proper  estimate  of 
oneself 137 

COURTESY  AND  POLITENESS 

Their  vital  importance  in  the  consummation  of  trade.  — 
Without  them  the  selling  of  goods  is  impossible.  — 
Two  great  selling  assets 140 

STICK-TO-IT-IVENESS 

The  necessity  of  keeping  everlastingly  at  it.  —  The 
essentiality  of  persistency.  —  The  value  of  continu- 
ity. —  Nothing  sticks  to  the  man  who  does  not  stick  147 

ORIGINALITY  IN  SELLING 

The  good  and  the  bad  of  it.  —  How  to  use  it  to  selling 
advantage.  —  The  dangers  attending  its  indiscrimi- 
nating  use 153 

ADVISING  THE  CUSTOMER 

The  selling  value  of  acceptable  advice  and  suggestion. 
—  How  to  profitably  advise  the  customer.  —  The 
kind  of  advice  he  will  gladly  accept.  —  How  to  help 
him  to  mutual  advantage 157 


xiv  CONTENTS 

BEING  AFRAID  OF  YOURSELF 

Page 

A  chapter  directed  to  the  salesman  who  does  not  possess 
sufficient  self-reliance,  who  seems  to  be  under  the 
whip  of  fear,  and  who  does  not  present  himself  and 
his  goods  with  confidence  in  either 162 

YOUR  COMPETITORS 

Speak  well  of  your  competitors.  —  To  do  otherwise  is 
to  advertise  them,  to  give  the  customer  the  suspicion 
that  you  are  afraid  of  them,  that  they  have  better 
goods  than  those  you  carry.  —  There  is  room  for  all 
of  you.  —  Help  one  another 165 

IRRITABILITY  IN  SELLING 

It  is  sure  to  work  injury,  especially  to  the  seller  of  the 
goods.  —  Probably  you  can  get  rid  of  most  of  it 
if  you  make  up  your  mind  to  do  so 167 

PERSONAL  HABITS 

The  private  life  of  the  salesman.  —  The  dangers  of 
dissipation  in  business  and  out  of  it.  —  The  selling 
advantage  of  living  a  clean  and  normal  life  ....  172 

TAKING  AN  INTEREST  IN  YOUR  WORK 

It  is  absolutely  essential  that  you  take  and  keep  an 
active  interest  in  your  work,  no  matter  how  menial 
it  may  be.  —  There  is  no  other  way  to  succeed  in 
selling  goods  .  .  . 175 


CONTENTS  xv 

TREATING  THE  CUSTOMER 

Page 

The  common,  and  somewhat  over-done,  custom  of 
treating  the  customer.  —  When  to  do  it  and  when 
not  to  do  it 179 

INDEPENDENCE  IN  SELLING 

Real  independence  and  its  money-making  value.  — 
The  kind  of  independence  which  antagonizes  and 
prevents  the  sale.  —  The  profitable  mixture  of  in- 
dependence and  dependence 182 

SELF-CONFIDENCE  IN  SELLING 

The  quality  of  being  reasonably  sure  of  yourself  and 
of  the  goods  you  sell.  —  If  you  are  wholly  without 
it,  you  have  no  right  to  remain  in  the  selling  line  .  .  187 

STUDYING  OTHERS'  METHODS 

Do  not  depend  wholly  upon  yourself.  —  Study  the 
methods  successfully  used  by  others.  —  Learn  to 
learn  from  others.  —  Become  familiar  with  what 
others  are  doing 19l 

INDIVIDUALITY  IN  SELLING 

The  selling  value  of  individuality  and  personality.  — 
The  salesman  of  individuality  has  an  advantage  over 
the  man  of  too  much  conventionality 197 

PUNCTUALITY  IN  BUSINESS 

The  selling  necessity  of  always  being  on  time.  —  The 
on-time  man  may  waste  a  minute.  —  The  behind- 
time  man  may  lose  a  day.  —  Promptness  is  a  leading 
business  asset  201 


xvi  CONTENTS 

THE  VOICE  IN  SELLING 

Page 

Little  selling  is  possible  without  the  constant  use  of  the 
voice.  —  Its  tone   and   quality  are  of   great   impor- 
tance. —  The  training  of  the  voice 204 

WHAT  TO  Do  OUTSIDE  OF  BUSINESS 

Some  of  the  things  that  one  should  do  outside  of  work- 
ing hours  for  his  own  sake  and  for  the  sake  of  business. 
—  Doing  nothing  save  business-doing  is  conducive 
to  business  failure 206 

WHAT  TO  READ 

What  one  may  read  to  advantage  to  his  business  and 
to  his  own  personal  improvement.  —  The  book  and 
the  periodical,  including  the  daily  newspaper,  are 
business  as  well  as  social  necessities 212 

WIT  AND  HUMOR  IN  SELLING 

Genuine  wit  and  clean-cut  humor.  —  The  dangerous 
imitation.  —  How  to  use  them  to  advantage  in  sell- 
ing goods,  and  how  to  avoid  their  over-use  and  the 
places  where  they  are  not  conducive  to  good  selling 
policy 217 

RECREATION  AND  EXERCISE 

Rest,  recreation,  diversion,  and  exercise  as  parts  of 
right  living  and  good  business-doing.  —  When  and 
how  to  play  for  the  benefit  of  yourself  and  your 
business  .  220 


CONTENTS  xvii 

CANVASSERS  AND  BOOK  AGENTS 

Page 

House-to-house  sellers. — The  opportunities  offered 
them.  —  The  trials  and  tribulations  attending  this 
class  of  sales-people 226 

THE  ACADEMIC  EDUCATION  OP  THE  SALESMAN 

The  pre-education  of  the  seller  of  goods.  —  His  neces- 
sary schooling.  —  The  high  school,  the  technical  in- 
stitution, the  college,  and  others.  —  What  he  should 
know  academically  or  technically  before  entering  the 
selling  side  of  business 231 

THE  VOICE  OP  SELLING  EXPERIENCE 

Specially  written  articles  by  twenty-nine  leading  sales- 
men, sales-managers,  and  prominent  commercial 
men  commanding  large  business  outputs.  —  Each 
article  presents  the  long  and  personal  experience  of 
the  writer,  and  altogether  they  give  a  composite 
picture  of  selling  fact  and  opinion.  —  A  list  of  these 
collaborators  is  given  on  the  following  page  ....  240 


INDEX   . 315 


LIST  OF  COLLABORATORS 

ALPHABETICALLY  ARRANGED 

Page 

JOHN  R.  AINSLEY  &  Co.,  BOSTON.    By  John  R.  Ainsley, 

head  of  the  firm 241 

C.  A.  BROWNING  &  Co.,  BOSTON.  By  Fred  L.  Howard, 

member  of  the  firm;  President,  Boston  Credit  Men's 

Association 242 

BROWNING,  KING  &  Co.,  NEW  YORK  CITY.  By  Frank 

E.  Hill,  Manager 246 

W.  ATLEE  BURPEE  &  Co.,  PHILADELPHIA.  By  W.  At- 

lee  Burpee,  head  of  the  firm 248 

SAMUEL  CABOT,  INC.,  BOSTON.  By  March  G.  Bennett, 

General  Manager 251 

COBB,  BATES  &  YERXA  Co.,  BOSTON.  By  Herbert  M. 

Seaver,  salesman 253 

COLLIER'S  WEEKLY,  NEW  YORK  CITY.  By  James  G. 

Berrien,  New  England  Manager 254 

DECATUR  &  HOPKINS  Co.,  BOSTON.  By  Austin  H. 

Decatur,  President 258 

FARLEY,  HARVEY  &  Co.,  BOSTON.  By  Fred  H.  Tucker, 

member  of  the  firm 260 

GEORGE  FROST  Co.,  BOSTON.  By  Emile  Pickhardt, 

Sales-Manager 262 

GOODHUE,  STUDLEY  &  EMERY,  BOSTON.  By  Allan  C. 

Emery,  member  of  the  firm 265 

ISAAC  HAMBURGER  &  SONS,  BALTIMORE.  By  Albert 

Berrey,  Chief  Sales-Manager 267 

HAMILTON,  BROWN  SHOE  Co.,  ST.  Louis.  By  Thomas 

S.  Hall,  Sales-Manager 269 

JORDAN,  MARSH  Co.,  BOSTON.  By  W.  A.  Hawkins, 

Superintendent,  and  Delia  B.  Bean,  Principal  of  the 

School  of  Salesmanship 271-274 


xx  LIST  OF  COLLABORATORS 

Page 

FRANCIS  H.  LEQGETT  &  Co.,  New  York  City.  By 
John  C.  Juhring,  President 278 

MENIHAN  Co.,  ROCHESTER.  By  J.  William  Naylor, 
travelling  salesman;  President,  The  Shoe  Travelers' 
Association,  Chicago 279 

MICHIGAN  STOVE  Co.,  DETROIT.  By  George  H.  Bar- 
bour,  Vice-President  and  General  Manager  ....  281 

HENRY  F.  MILLER  &  SONS  Co.,  BOSTON.  By  Chandler 
W.  Smith,  Manager,  Wholesale  Department  ....  284 

O'SULLIVAN  RUBBER  HEEL  Co.,  LOWELL.  By  Hum- 
phrey O'Sullivan,  Treasurer;  Proprietor,  Merrimack 
Clothing  Co.,  Lowell 287 

PARRY  AUTO  Co.,  INDIANAPOLIS.  By  David  M.  Parry, 
President;  Ex-President  of  The  National  Association 
of  Manufacturers  of  the  United  States  and  The  Car- 
riage Builders'  National  Association 289 

POPE  MANUFACTURING  Co.,  HARTFORD.  By  Edward 
W.  Pope,  Ex-Treasurer 291 

JOHN  H.  PRAY  &  SONS  Co.,  BOSTON.  By  Frank  S. 
Chick,  Vice-President 293 

PRUDENTIAL  INSURANCE  COMPANY  OF  AMERICA,  NEW- 
ARK. By  Robert  J.  Mix,  Manager,  Ordinary  Depart- 
ment, New  York  City  office 294 

SELFRIDGE  &  Co.,  LONDON,  ENGLAND.  By  P.  A.  Best, 
Manager 297 

A.  SHUMAN  &  Co.,  BOSTON.  By  R.  A.  Walker,  Sales- 
Manager  303 

JOHN  WANAMAKER,  NEW  YORK  CITY.  By  P.  V.  Bunn, 
Manager,  Mail  Order  Service  Department 305 

WARREN  BROTHERS  Co.,  BOSTON.  By  George  C.  War- 
ren, President 308 

L.  E.  WATERMAN  Co.,  NEW  YORK  CITY.  By  F.  P. 
Seymour,  Sales-Manager 313 


PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 


WHAT  IS  SALESMANSHIP? 

THE  salesman  was  born  at  the  birth  of  trade. 
Business-doing  of  every  kind  appears  to  be  impossible 
without  the  intervention  of  salesmen  or  of  some  per- 
sonal action  which  stands  for  salesmanship. 

The  customer,  whether  he  be  the  jobber,  the  distrib- 
uter, the  retailer,  the  peddler,  or  the  consumer,  may 
know  what  he  wants,  and  he  may  be  aware  also  that 
he  cannot  live  or  do  business  without  buying  something 
of  somebody.  But  for  some  reason,  or,  rather,  from 
what  would  ethically  and  scientifically  appear  to  be 
lack  of  reason,  he  may  not  order  the  goods  or  supplies, 
or  he  may  buy  less  of  them,  unless  somebody  solicits 
his  trade  and  tells  him  what  to  do,  or  forces  him  to  do, 
what  necessity  and  common  sense  make  necessary  for 
living  or  for  doing  business. 

Theoretically  it  would  appear  to  be  an  unnatural 
condition  of  business,  which  makes  it  necessary  for  the 
buyer  to  be  told  what  he  should  buy,  rather  than  to 
do  it  of  his  own  volition.  But  whether  this  be  so  or 
not,  this  condition  has  always  existed,  still  maintains, 
and  will  continue  to  be,  until  civilization  passes  further 
up  the  road  to  perfection,  when  selling  will  be  done  by 


2  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

waiters  and  not  by  coaxers  of  trade.  When  this  time 
arrives,  a  large  part  of  the  machinery  of  business  will 
be  unnecessary,  and  the  strain  of  trade  reduced  to  the 
minimum. 

But  to-day,  with  or  without  reason,  the  selling  of 
practically  everything,  from  goods  on  the  counter  to 
steamships  and  locomotives,  is  a  direct  or  indirect  result 
of  solicitation,  either  by  personal  application  or  by  the 
silent  salesman  known  as  advertising,  and  generally  by 
the  use  of  both. 

For  the  present,  the  solicitor,  drummer,  or  salesman 
is  one  of  the  foundation  stones  of  commercialism,  with- 
out which  it  appears  impossible  to  build  and  maintain 
the  business  structure. 

There  are  many  definitions  of  salesmanship.  Here  is 
one: 

Salesmanship  is  a  personal  face-to-face  action  or 
effort  on  the  part  of  an  individual  which  is  intended  to 
bring  about  the  sale  of  the  goods  for  sale. 

And  here  is  another: 

More  broadly  speaking,  salesmanship  is  the  art  of 
selling  something  to  somebody,  and  everything  which 
contributes  to  the  consummation  of  this  exchange  is 
necessarily  a  part  of  salesmanship. 

Salesmanship  differs  from  demonstration  in  that  the 
latter  may  not  include  the  former,  and  it  is  like  dem- 
onstration because  good  salesmanship  usually  includes 
some  form  of  demonstration. 

Considered  wholly  from  a  commercial  point  of  view, 


WHAT  IS  SALESMANSHIP?  3 

salesmanship  consists  of  personal  solicitation,  the  sales- 
man and  the  customer  meeting  face  to  face.  In  this 
book  I  am  so  considering  it,  and  am  not  attempting  to 
bring  into  the  argument  any  kind  of  selling  action 
beyond  face-to-face  solicitation  and  those  things 
directly  pertaining  to  it. 

Salesmanship  is  not  unlike  the  plea  of  the  lawyer 
before  the  court  or  the  jury.  Both  contain  arguments; 
and,  in  both  cases,  the  presentator,  either  of  arguments 
or  of  goods  or  of  both,  is  attempting  to  make  the  party 
addressed  do  what  he  asks  him  to  do. 

On  the  one  hand  there  is  something  for  sale,  whether 
it  be  a  life  insurance  policy,  an  automobile,  a  suit  of 
clothes,  or  a  barrel  of  potatoes.  The  owner  of  what  is 
for  sale,  or  his  representative,  desires  to  get  rid  of  what 
he  has,  to  transfer  it  or  sell  it  to  somebody  who  wants 
it  or  can  be  made  to  want  it. 

To  do  this,  he  employs  every  method  which  will  in 
any  way  influence  the  buyer,  including  printed  matter, 
advertising,  well-arranged  warerooms,  handsome  office 
fittings,  and,  most  important  of  all,  a  proper  presenta- 
tion of  the  thing  for  sale  by  an  individual  commer- 
cially known  as  a  salesman,  who  adds  personality  and 
voice  to  the  selling  argument. 

The  salesman  exists  for  two  reasons:  first,  custom; 
secondly,  because  it  is  obvious  that  even  the  best  in- 
formed buyer  cannot  know  everything,  and  the  well- 
posted  salesman  is  in  a  position  to  give  him  information 
about  the  article  for  sale. 


4  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

There  is  opportunity  for  a  discussion  man-to-man, 
and  for  the  presentation  of  argument;  and  this  informa- 
tion and  these  arguments  cannot  be  given  with  any 
degree  of  fullness  by  the  printed  page  or  advertisement. 
Or,  if  they  could  be,  they  would  not  even  then  take  the 
place  of  personal  information-giving  and  custom-made 
argument. 

Salesmanship  cannot  be  analyzed  with  chemical  or 
other  exactness.  To  define  it,  to  separate  it  into  its 
component  parts,  would  be  as  difficult  as  it  would  be 
to  analyze  ability  and  to  tell  what  it  consists  of. 

Yet  we  all  know  what  salesmanship  is,  and  we  are 
able  to  measure  the  results  of  its  qualities  and  quantities. 

The  art  of  salesmanship  includes  several  funda- 
mental elements,  phases,  or  parts,  which,  consolidated, 
make  a  salesman.  These  I  have  considered  in  chapters 
by  themselves.  I  will,  however,  briefly  and  collectively 
discuss  them  here. 

The  first-class  salesman,  whether  he  is  behind  the 
counter,  on  the  floor,  or  on  the  road,  whether  he  peddles 
books  or  sells  furniture,  is  proficient  along  the  following 
lines: 

First,  he  knows  his  goods.  No  seller  of  goods,  who 
is  unfamiliar  with  them,  can  sell  them  to  full  advantage. 
I  know  of  a  few  expert  salesmen  who  have  closed  large 
deals  without  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  goods  they 
sell,  and  I  know  of  two  or  three  men,  in  particular, 
drawing  or  earning  large  salaries  as  salesmen,  who  are 
woefully,  and  almost  criminally,  ignorant  of  their 


WHAT  IS  SALESMANSHIP?  5 

wares,  yet  are  able  to  consummate  larger  sales  than 
ninety  per  cent  of  thoroughly  posted  salesmen.  These 
men  are  natural  geniuses,  pre-eminent  traders,  who 
seem  to  be  able  to  sell  anything  at  any  time  to  anybody. 

Secondly,  the  ability  to  describe  or  talk  the  goods. 
Many  a  man  with  an  intimate  knowledge  in  the  prem- 
ises, one  both  technical  and  broad,  fails  because  he 
does  not  know  how  to  talk.  It  is  obvious  that  all  the 
knowledge  in  the  world  is  worthless  unless  it  is  dis- 
tributed. The  man  of  knowledge,  and  not  of  tongue  or 
of  pen,  is  about  as  badly  off  in  business  as  would  be  the 
man  of  voice  only,  with  nothing  back  of  it.  The  com- 
mercial value  of  what  we  know  is  dependent  upon  our 
distribution  or  use  of  it.  If  we  do  not  know  how  to 
talk  our  wares,  we  cannot  readily  sell,  and  we  have  no 
right  to  be  members  of  the  selling  craft. 

Thirdly,  a  general  knowledge  of  business  principles. 
There  are  salesmen  who  can  only  sell  goods,  possessing 
no  real  business  ability  beyond  that  of  selling.  Some 
of  them  succeed  moderately,  but  few  of  them  become 
great  salesmen.  I  am  convinced  that  a  general  knowl- 
edge of  business,  or  some  ability  to  manipulate  business, 
is  essential  to  good  salesmanship  or  to  best  salesmanship. 

Fourthly,  a  working  familiarity  with  the  business 
methods  and  action  of  one's  competitors.  To  success- 
fully and  continuously  consummate  trade,  and  to  be 
able  to  overcome  expected  and  unexpected  obstacles, 
one  must  not  be  unfamiliar  with  the  methods  used  by 
those  in  the  same  line  of  business. 


6  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

Fifthly,  the  ability  to  talk  something  besides  "shop/' 
To  do  this  requires  a  knowledge  of  things  in  general. 
Practically  all  successful  salesmen  are  reservoirs  of  gen- 
eral information  about  business  and  of  matters  outside 
of  business;  and  this  information,  always  ready  for 
immediate  delivery,  permits  them  to  be  both  agreeable 
and  profitable  to  their  customers.  It  materially  assists 
in  making  a  good  impression. 

Sixthly,  the  ability  to  diagnose  the  customer,  or,  in 
the  language  of  the  street,  "to  size-up  the  other  fellow." 
Unless  one  is  able  to  do  this,  to  some  degree,  at  least, 
he  cannot  hope  to  be  more  than  a  mediocre  success,  on 
the  road  or  behind  the  counter;  and  he  stands  as  little 
chance  of  winning  the  battle  of  trade  as  does  the  com- 
manding officer  of  an  army  who  meets  his  enemy 
without  a  knowledge  of  its  strength  or  proportions. 

While  the  ability  to  judge  men  and ,  customers,  to 
diagnose  and  to  size-up,  is  the  one  thing  which  stands 
between  the  great  salesman  and  one  of  ordinary  capac- 
ity, I  am  not  willing  to  say  that  diagnosing  is  the  most 
important  element  of  all.  It  is  a  necessary  one,  and 
no  one  can  succeed  without  some  of  it.  Those  who  pos- 
sess it  to  a  marked  degree  belong  to  the  upper  grade  of 
the  upper  class,  and  those  who  have  little  of  it  are 
pretty  close  to  the  bottom. 

Seventhly,  good-nature.  Comparatively  few  morose, 
over-dignified,  cold,  and  chilly  salesmen  have  amounted 
to  anything.  It  is  possible  for  them  to  sell  goods  when 
the  buyer  is  as  anxious  to  buy  as  the  seller  is  to  sell, 


WHAT  IS  SALESMANSHIP?  7 

but  they  are  practically  worthless  at  the  initiative,  and 
are  seldom  able  to  obtain  or  to  hold  any  trade  worth 
having.  Some  managers  look  upon  good-nature  as  the 
most  important  requirement  of  all.  Whether  it  is  or 
not,  it  is  a  fact  that  without  it  great  success  is  impossible. 

Eighthly,  that  ability  to  play  a  double  part,  to  inter- 
est and  benefit  the  customer  while  being  thoroughly 
faithful  and  profitable  to  the  house  one  represents. 
Salesmen  holding  permanent  trade  never  forget  the 
customer's  interest,  and  yet  they  always  work  for  the 
benefit  of  their  own  house. 

Unless  a  salesman  is  both  pleasing  and  profitable  to 
the  customer,  he  will  not  continue  to  do  business,  nor 
will  he  be  permitted  to  hold  his  position  if  his  sales  are 
not  profitable  to  the  house  he  represents. 

Of  course,  there  are  many  other  elements  which  con- 
tribute mightily  to  salesmanship,  such  as  persistency, 
faithfulness,  promptness,  and  the  like,  without  which 
one  may  not  hope  to  succeed  at  anything.  These  I 
have  attempted  to  cover  in  other  chapters. 

Which  is  the  most  important  of  the  eight  points  of 
selling?  The  answer  is  of  little  moment.  The  profi- 
cient salesman  possesses  them  all,  not  in  their  fullness 
or  perfection,  because  that  is  impossible.  Most  sales- 
men are  strong  in  one  direction  and  weak  in  others. 
They  have  not  selling  balance.  All  of  these  attainments 
play  leading  parts  on  the  stage  of  salesmanship,  and 
their  relative  positions  are  of  little  consequence.  They 
do  not  compete  with  one  another. 


8  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

The  successful  salesman  is  a  natural  trader.  He 
is  fond  of  selling.  He  likes  to  meet  competition, 
and  loves  to  overcome  obstacles.  He  is  a  fighter, 
a  strategist. 

Without  this  natural  ability,  more  than  ordinary 
success  is  impossible.  Nobody  can  make  of  himself 
what  he  is  not.  The  power  of  self-creation  does  not 
exist.  If  one  possesses  no  trading  capacity,  he  can 
never  sell  many  goods  to  anybody  anywhere.  But  even 
a  little  ability  may  be  developed  into  what  amounts  to 
about  the  same  as  much  ability.  On  the  other  hand, 
great  natural  capacity  is  worth  little  unless  trained  by 
experience  and  persistency,  that  everlasting  stick-to- 
it-iveness  which  turns  failure  into  success. 

Ordinary  selling  ability  can  undoubtedly  be  developed 
and  trained  sufficiently  to  make  its  possessor  reasonably 
successful  upon  the  road  or  behind  the  counter. 

Goods  seldom  sell  themselves.  They  have  to  be  per- 
sonally and  satisfactorily  presented.  Nearly  all  of 
them  are  in  duplicate.  The  purchaser  can  usually 
obtain  the  same  thing  at  the  same  price  somewhere 
else.  Competition  is  confined  partly  to  the  reputation 
of  the  house  and  to  the  ability  of  the  salesman,  and 
not  altogether  to  the  quality  of  the  goods  offered  for 
sale. 

The  individuality  and  personality  of  the  salesman, 
who  for  the  time  being  is  the  firm  itself,  —  his  ability 
and  perseverance,  —  are  really  the  principal  factors  in 
the  consummation  of  trade,  assuming,  of  course,  that 


WHAT  IS  SALESMANSHIP?  9 

the  reputation  of  the  firm  is  high  and  the  goods  of 
acceptable  quality. 

Would  I  advise  one  to  become  a  salesman  who  could 
not  meet  all  of  these  requirements?  Yes,  if  he  was  not 
altogether  inefficient,  and  had  confidence  and  a  willing- 
ness to  put  his  shoulder  to  the  business  wheel  and  to 
PUSH.  Few  of  us  may  hope  to  reach  the  flush  of 
success.  It  then  becomes  our  duty  to  take  up  the  thing 
we  can  do  the  best,  however  poorly  that  may  be. 

One  may  succeed  in  a  moderate  way  at  selling  goods, 
or  in  any  other  line,  without  being  properly  balanced. 
If  he  be  deficient  to  a  marked  degree  in  many  of  the 
things  which  go  to  make  good  salesmanship,  there  is 
probably  some  other  field  of  endeavor  which  better 
suits  his  capacity. 

The  top  of  salesmanship  has  never  been  fully  occu- 
pied, and  there  will  always  be  room  at  the  top.  Com- 
paratively few  ever  reach  it.  There  are  many  grades 
below  the  top,  and  all  of  them,  except  the  lowest,  offer 
a  living,  and  often  a  good  living. 

If  you  like  to  sell  goods,  and  you  possess  some  ability 
in  that  direction,  there  is  no  reason  why  you  should  not 
become  a  salesman,  unless  there  is  something  which 
you  like  as  well  or  better  and  can  do  as  well  or  better. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  SELLING 

THERE  is  a  psychological  or  an  inner  scientific  reason 
for  every  action,  for  everything  which  contributes  to 
every  movement  of  every  kind,  even  to  thought  itself. 
Nothing  exists  without  a  source,  a  creative  beginning; 
and  everything  is  subject  to  some  law,  known,  partly 
known,  unknown,  or  mysterious. 

I  do  not  propose  to  enter  the  depths  of  psychology, 
because  this  science,  —  which,  by  many,  is  looked  upon 
as  the  coming  scientific  basis  of  all  science,  —  is  yet  an 
only  slightly  solved  riddle;  and  much  of  what  is  known 
of  it  should  not  be  presented,  unless  clothed  in  the  garb 
of  purely  scientific  term  and  analysis. 

We  know  that  it  exists  and  has  definite  and  immut- 
able laws;  yet  we  have  not  been  able  to  deeply  analyze 
it  or  to  separate  it  into  all  of  its  component  parts. 

The  time  will  come,  however,  when  this  fundamental 
science  will  be  universally  studied,  and  the  good  of  its 
secrets  will  be  known  and  usable  by  the  people  at  large. 

To-day,  psychology  is  a  growing  science.  It  is  still 
in  its  cradle,  and  has  not  learned  to  walk  save  with 
faltering  steps.  We  are  still  in  the  psychological  foot- 
hills, but  sufficiently  advanced  to  at  least  attempt  to 
analyze  it  with  hope  of  being  able  to  apply  it  somewhat 
to  the  important  movements  of  life,  including  business- 
doing. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  SELLING         11 

Opposed  to  psychology,  to  the  theoretical,  and  to 
scientific  reason,  is  what  is  known  as  "common  prac- 
tice," which,  for  the  time  being,  may  occupy  a  more 
important  place,  or,  rather,  seem  to  do  so,  in  active  life. 

Until  we  become  civilized,  and  have  our  minds  under 
accurate  command,  we  shall  be  unable  to  fully  apply  the 
inner  virtues  of  any  science  or  art,  and  will,  to  an  extent, 
depend  upon  results  or  what  seem  to  be  results;  and, 
if  they  are  satisfactory  or  appear  to  be,  we  shall  be 
likely  to  work  backwards  instead  of  forwards,  allowing 
results  to  steer  us,  if  they  are  apparently  satisfactory. 

Let  me  give  a  concrete,  and  yet  humble,  example  of 
practice  out-generaling  science,  of  result  pre-empting 
scientific  reason. 

Some  years  ago,  an  inventive  genius  constructed  what 
is  known  as  a  double-runner.  This  contrivance  con- 
sisted of  two  sleds,  fastened  to  a  board,  the  forward 
one  being  on  a  pivot  and  capable  of  being  steered  by 
a  wheel,  ropes,  or  by  out-riggers,  held  by  the  man  in 
front. 

This  inventor  applied  science  to  the  making  of  an 
almost  perfect  coasting  machine.  The  runners  were 
double-shod  and  absolutely  true.  Between  the  forward 
end  of  the  board  and  the  steering  sled  were  roller- 
bearings,  and  the  whole  was  steered  with  a  wheel. 
There  were  no  ball-bearings  in  those  days.  Every- 
thing was  balanced  to  the  equipoise  of  successful 
nicety.  A  better  and  more  scientifically  constructed 
coaster  had  never  been  produced. 


12  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

The  inventor,  proud  of  his  creation,  offered  to  race 
any  double-runner  of  any  size  or  kind.  A  hill  was 
selected.  Thousands  watched  the  contest,  which  re- 
sulted in  the  defeat  of  this  marvelously  constructed 
racing  machine. 

A  man  weighing  two  hundred  pounds,  who  did  not 
know  anything  about  science,  fastened  two  big  sleds 
to  a  long  and  heavy  plank,  without  making  any  effort 
towards  trueness  or  accuracy.  The  whole  affair  was 
crude  and  out  of  adjustment,  but  it  weighed  twice  as 
much  as  the  scientifically-made  double-runner;  the 
owner  weighed  fifty  pounds  more  than  the  inventor, 
and  he  put  twenty  fat  men  on  board. 

Weight  won  the  victory  over  science.  The  clumsy 
machine  greatly  out-distanced  the  one  built  upon 
scientific  lines. 

Had  this  contest  occurred  in  a  vacuum,  or  had  both 
the  double-runners  been  of  equal  weight,  including  the 
passengers,  science  would  have  been  in  the  van.  In- 
stead of  this,  the  "weight  of  practice,"  opposed  to 
theory  and  science,  came  in  ahead. 

This  condition,  for  the  present,  somewhat  applies 
to  our  imperfect  way  of  doing  things,  and  true  science 
and  high  art  do  not  always  occupy  the  front  row;  but, 
sooner  or  later,  real  science  and  art,  including  an  under- 
standing of  psychology,  will  enable  truth  to  win  in 
every  contest,  and  brute-force  will  play  no  part  on  the 
stage  of  life. 

This  present  condition,  however,  gives  no  excuse  for 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  SELLING         13 

not  attempting  to  understand  the  science  of  every-day 
things  and  of  business,  although  we  cannot  fully  com- 
prehend them;  nor  should  we  object  to  digging  deep 
into  science  and  to  applying  it  up  to  the  reach  of  our 
intelligence. 

The  selling  proposition,  briefly,  is  as  follows:  The 
salesman  has  something  to  sell,  and  it  is  his  duty  to 
get  somebody  to  buy  it.  It  is  a  battle  of  quality  of 
goods  and  quality  of  salesmen  with  the  buyer  who  is 
the  opposing  or  objecting  force. 

These  two  conditions,  or  men,  meet  face  to  face,  the 
salesman  finding  it  necessary  to  take  the  initiative,  to 
fire  the  first  shot,  so  to  speak;  the  other  side,  the  buyer, 
having  the  pre-eminent  right  to  remain  passive,  or  to 
act  on  the  defensive,  or  to  allow  the  selling-shot  to  take 
effect. 

Pure  civilization,  and  the  higher  ethics  of  life,  would 
probably  refuse  to  recognize  the  art  of  salesmanship, 
and  would  not  consider  it  a  part  of  life's  economics  or 
necessity.  It  would  require  that  the  salesman,  instead 
of  expending  ninety  per  cent  of  his  energy,  that  he 
might  consummate  trade  by  the  use  of  every  kind  of 
pressure,  should  become  a  demonstrator,  an  expert,  a 
talking  lexicon,  a  source  of  information,  that  the  buyer 
may  use  him  for  what  he  knows,  not  for  what  he  can  do. 
The  buyer,  then,  would  come  to  the  goods,  and  the 
salesman  would  deliver  a  lecture  upon  them  and 
answer  questions.  Beyond  this  salesmanship  would 
not  go. 


14  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

Against  this  is  present  fact  or  conditions.  Not- 
withstanding that  every  buyer  knows  that  he  must 
purchase,  knows  that  he  wants  the  goods  that  he  buys, 
or  should  know  it,  he  may  not  purchase  anything,  ex- 
cept necessities,  unless  under  pressure. 

Every  salesman  will  tell  you  that  from  fifty  to  eighty- 
five  per  cent  of  his  sales  would  not  have  occurred  if  it 
were  not  for  the  selling  efforts  he  made.  This  state- 
ment must  not  be  construed  to  mean  that  business 
would  be  reduced  from  fifty  to  eighty-five  per  cent, 
but  the  specific  business  coming  to  any  one  firm  would 
be  cut  as  stated  if  salesmen  were  not  employed. 

It  is  also  a  fact  that,  although  the  buyer  would  do  a 
certain  amount  of  purchasing  anyway,  the  output  of 
all  goods,  taking  them  as  they  run,  would  be  very  much 
less,  —  nobody  knows  how  much  less,  —  if  salesmen 
were  not  generally  employed. 

There  is  something  wrong  and  unnatural  about 
this,  but  so  long  as  it  exists,  it  must  be  met. 

The  necessities  of  life  are  few.  Custom,  rather 
than  necessity  or  refinement,  is  responsible  for  about 
seventy-five  per  cent  of  everything  sold,  except  eat- 
ables. People  buy  partly  because  they  want  to  excel 
somebody  else  or  to  have  what  others  have. 

For  years  simplicity  has  appeared  to  be  almost  a 
lost  art.  To-day  we  are  doing  double  the  business 
which  any  civilized  nation  would  think  of  doing;  and 
not  only  are  we  foolish  in  the  purchase  of  useless 
luxuries,  but  we  are  making  necessities  of  things  which 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  SELLING         15 

can  play  no  part  in  either  economy  or  refinement  and 
which  have  nothing  to  do  with  real  progress. 

But  we  must  take  things  as  they  are,  not  as  we 
would  have  them. 

There  are  few  goods  which  are  not  duplicated  in 
quality  and  quantity.  Few  salesmen  have  anything 
which  is  exclusively  their  own.  The  sinking  of  any 
one  house,  or  the  annihilation  of  any  one  salesman, 
would  hardly  make  a  ripple  on  the  sea  of  trade. 

Why  is  it  that  one  salesman  succeeds  where  another 
fails,  with  identical  goods,  identical  prices,  and  iden- 
tical demand?  Simply  because  one  salesman  has  a 
certain  faculty  of  presenting  his  wares  and  of  sub- 
jecting the  buyer  to  his  personal  influence. 

If  the  purchaser  were  perfectly  sane,  and  knew  his 
business,  the  salesman  would  be  unnecessary,  and 
personality  would  not  count  for  much  in  selling,  for 
most  of  it  could  be  done  by  mail  or  through  demon- 
strators. But  the  present  buyer  is  very  human  and 
does  not  see  straight,  any  more  than  other  people  do. 
He  is  in  a  condition  to  be  directed,  and  the  salesman 
who  succeeds  understands  how  to  direct  others  and 
how  to  make  them  do  what,  perhaps,  they  would  not 
do  if  they  were  let  alone. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  salesman  absolutely 
controls  the  buyer,  that  he  exercises  what  is  falsely 
called  a  hypnotic  influence  over  him,  that  in  his  hands 
the  buyer  is  powerless  and  must  do  what  the  sales- 
man tells  him  to  do.  Except  in  a  few  instances,  no 


16  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

salesman  possesses  this  power  in  any  degree  of  fullness; 
yet  the  good  salesman  has  some  of  it,  and  is  able  by 
personality  and  argument  to  bring  the  buyer  into  a 
purchasing  mood,  to  make  him  buy,  then  and  there, 
when,  perhaps,  he  would  postpone  the  purchase  or 
give  the  order  to  some  other  house. 

There  is  another  element  which  plays  a  mighty 
part  in  selling:  the  average  buyer  does  not  usually 
want  to  buy,  or  says  he  does  not,  or  thinks  he  does 
not,  —  and  usually  he  says  he  does  not  want  to  buy 
whatever  his  intention  may  be.  The  salesman,  then, 
has  before  him  a  wall  of  opposition,  even  when  the 
buyer  has  made  up  his  mind  to  purchase.  Not  only 
must  he  present  the  right  goods  and  the  right  prices, 
but  he  must  possess  that  unanalyzable  ability  to  make 
the  buyer  do  what  he  may  not  voluntarily  do  or  what 
he  would  postpone  doing.  This  ability  may  be  con- 
sidered the  fundamental  bottom  of  good  salesmanship 
under  present  conditions. 

Even  the  woman  in  front  of  the  counter,  with  her 
mind  fully  made  up  to  purchase,  may  go  to  another 
store,  or  may  decide  to  wait  a  day  or  two,  if  she  and 
the  salesman  antagonize  each  other,  or  if  she  is  not 
pleased  with  the  salesman's  manner  or  methods. 
And,  further,  a  large  proportion  of  retail  purchasers 
may  be  made  to  buy  more  if  the  salesman  understands 
how  to  sell.  It  is  a  fight,  a  battle  of  wits,  the  buyer 
starting  in  ahead  of  the  game,  the  salesman  to  win  in 
the  end  if  he  can.  However  much  the  buyer  may 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  SELLING         IT 

want  to  purchase,  the  salesman  should  want  to  sell 
him  more  than  he  wants  to  buy;  and  unless  the  sales- 
man keeps  this  fact  in  mind,  and  realizes  that  it  is 
more  difficult  to  sell  the  customer  than  it  is  for  the 
customer  to  buy  of  him,  he  will  make  only  mediocre 
sales. 

It  is  true  that  no  one  salesman  can  handle  all  cus- 
tomers with  equal  success.  The  customer  has  his 
preferences,  and  no  one  possesses  all  of  the  necessary 
qualifications. 

The  buyer  may  refuse  to  adapt  himself  to  the  seller. 
The  seller  must  adapt  himself  to  the  buyer.  The 
buyer  will  not  take  the  initiative,  as  a  rule.  The 
salesman  must  always  take  it.  The  buyer  will  not 
advise  the  salesman  or  attempt  to  help  him.  The 
salesman  must  both  advise  and  help  the  buyer.  The 
buyer  is  always,  or  almost  always,  an  opposing  factor, 
He  has  a  right  to  occupy  this  position,  because  he  i& 
paying  out  his  money,  while  the  salesman  is  taking 
it  in. 

It  is  a  duel,  the  buyer  occupying  the  preferred  posi- 
tion and  permitted  to  fire  first. 

The  salesman,  if  he  would  be  successful,  must  meet 
this  opposition,  bind  up  his  wounds  if  he  is  hit,  and 
proceed  with  his  business. 

It  is  believed  by  many  that  the  fundamental  basis 
or  bottom  of  ability  comes  prenatally,  and  that  suc- 
cess in  any  line  is  impossible  unless  one  is  born,  so  to 
speak,  into  the  work. 


18  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

I  do  not  propose  to  minimize  the  value  of  inherited 
tendencies,  or  to  claim  that  prenatal  influences  do  not 
play  a  part  in  life;  but  I  wish  to  state  with  all  the 
earnestness  in  my  power  that  inheritance  is  worth 
mighty  little  in  any  market  unless  the  possessor  of  it 
does  something  to  develop  it  and  to  adapt  it  to  him- 
self and  to  his  conditions. 

No  man  ever  succeeded  in  anything,  whether  he 
had  natural  ability  or  not,  who  did  not  make  an  affort 
to  use  what  Nature  had  given  him. 

Take  the  voice,  for  instance.  It  is  probable  that  the 
great  vocalist  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  natural 
quality  of  his  vocal  organs,  yet  his  success  is  due  as 
much  to  the  training  of  his  voice  as  to  the  original 
quality  of  the  voice  itself. 

There  are  natural  salesmen,  those  who  seem  to  be 
able  to  sell  under  all  conditions;  but  these  men  did 
not  reach  superlative  success  without  study,  experi- 
ment, and  experience. 

There  are  those  who  have  not  any  natural  selling 
capacity.  They  can  never  become  great  on  the  road 
or  behind  the  counter;  but,  if  they  try  hard,  and  let 
no  opportunity  for  improvement  slip  by  them,  it  is 
quite  likely  that  they  can  do  fairly  well  in  the  selling 
side  of  business. 

I  cannot  say,  however,  that  I  would  advise  one 
without  much  selling  ability  to  attempt  to  become  a 
salesman,  unless  he  has  reason  to  believe  that  he  will 
do  as  well  in  that,  however  poorly  he  may  do,  as  he 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  SELLING         19 

would  be  likely  to  do  in  something  else.  But  the  man 
who  does  not  know  how  to  sell,  and  really  cannot  learn 
after  the  most  strenuous  effort,  who  finds  selling 
obnoxious,  had  better  go  into  something  else. 

If  your  goods  and  prices  are  right  and  you  do  not 
succeed,  there  is  something  the  matter  with  your 
natural  ability  or  you  have  not  properly  developed  or 
trained  it.  If  you  find  the  most  careful  training  and 
the  most  earnest  efforts  do  not  avail,  then  you  may 
properly  decide  that  you  do  not  possess  that  some- 
thing necessary  for  successful  salesmanship. 

Remember  that  you  cannot  reconstruct  the  buyer, 
that  he  will  continue  to  do  as  he  pleases.  If  necessary, 
you  must  reconstruct  yourself  to  meet  him,  or  else 
fail.  It  is  useless  to  find  fault  with  the  customer. 
You  cannot  reform  him  or  make  him  over,  but  you 
may  to  some  extent  make  yourself  over,  or,  at  any 
rate,  so  train  your  ability  that  it  will  be  able  to  accom- 
plish something  and  give  you  all  the  success  your 
capacity  entitles  you  to  have.  But,  before  you  decide 
that  salesmanship  is  objectionable,  test  yourself  most 
carefully,  because  what  you  call  inability  may  be 
sheer  laziness. 

Most  people  can  sell  goods  if  they  make  up  their 
minds  to  do  so,  and  many  of  them,  even  poor  sales- 
men, can  do  better  at  selling  than  at  anything  else. 

Fundamentally  your  success  as  a  salesman  does 
not  wholly  depend  upon  the  house  you  work  for,  nor 
altogether  upon  the  grade  of  the  goods  you  sell,  nor 


20  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

entirely  upon  the  demand  for  them;  but  in  your 
ability  to  make  people  buy  things,  and  to  do  it  with- 
out apparently  forcing  them  to  do  so. 

While  in  the  heat  of  selling,  if  you  would  be  suc- 
cessful, you  must  be  stronger  than  the  buyer  in  front 
of  you.  Otherwise  you  will  not  consummate  more 
than  a  few  sales. 

If  you  have  this  ability,  you  can  train  it  into  a  great 
business  asset.  If  you  have  not  much  of  it,  you  can 
do  something,  provided  you  make  up  your  mind  to 
do  it,  and  provided  your  common  sense  and  judg- 
ment tell  you  that  selling  is  the  best  thing  for  you  to  do. 


WHAT  SALESMANSHIP  OFFERS 

SALESMANSHIP  is  by  many  considered  the  most 
important  part  of  business-doing.  Whether  it  is  or 
not,  it  appears  to  be  absolutely  indispensable.  No 
business  is  done  without  the  intervention  of  some 
sort  of  salesmanship,  whether  it  consists  of  the  solicit- 
ing letter  or  of  the  human  solicitor. 

There  are  four  great  divisions  of  business,  subdi- 
vided as  many  times  as  you  please:  the  man  who 
makes  something  or  superintends  the  making  of  it; 
the  man  who  manages  the  business,  finances  it,  creates 
and  maintains  its  policy,  but  does  no  actual  hand- 
work; the  man  who  attends  to  the  purely  clerical 
part  of  it;  and  the  man  who  carries  the  goods  to  the 
customer  and  is  present  at  the  consummation  of  sales. 

The  maker  of  the  goods,  unless  he  be  the  proprietor, 
is  not  always  adequately  recognized,  because  he  has 
little  to  do  with  the  direct  disposition  of  the  output. 
Theoretically  he  is  the  most  important  of  all,  because 
he  creates,  but  he  can  do  his  work  without  an  initia- 
tive display  of  enterprise  and  without  using  strenuous 
methods. 

The  clerical  worker  or  bookkeeper  should  be  re- 
spected far  more  than  he  is,  for  without  him  business 
would  be  impossible.  But  as  he  does  not  directly 


22  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

bring  in  the  profits  and  is  not  on  the  firing  line,  he  is 
not  always  able  to  present  tangible  evidence  of  his 
worth  to  the  business.  He  is,  to  an  extent,  like  the 
cook  in  the  camp.  He  is  responsible  for  good  health, 
digestion,  and  even  life,  but  the  world  seems  to  think 
more  of  the  forager  who  goes  out  into  the  open  and 
brings  something  back  with  him.  The  bookkeeper 
plants  and  does  not  harvest. 

The  salesman  is  directly  concerned  with  the  profit- 
getting  of  the  concern.  He  is  the  profit-maker.  He 
is  in  the  limelight  all  of  the  time.  What  he  does  can 
be  seen  and  measured.  If  he  sells  a  certain  bill  of 
goods  at  a  certain  price  he  can  place  that  transaction 
on  the  firm's  blackboard,  there  to  be  seen  and  appre- 
ciated. He  has  brought  in  just  so  much  measurable 
profit.  Perhaps  this  business  would  have  come  any- 
way, but  it  is  a  fact,  nevertheless,  that  it  came  through 
him.  For  this  reason  he  is  in  a  position  to  expect  and 
to  command  promotion. 

Every  day  he  may  have  an  opportunity  to  make  a 
record  for  himself  which  can  be  written  out  in  cold 
figures.  Others  may  be  doing  more  work,  and  really 
contributing  more  to  the  up-building  of  the  business, 
but  none  of  them  can  show  daily  records  of  success  or 
failure.  What  they  do,  while  it  may  be  appreciated, 
cannot  always  be  measured  as  can  the  product  of 
salesmanship. 

The  salesman  is  the  only  one  who  continuously 
meets  the  great  outside,  whether  he  be  behind  the 


WHAT  SALESMANSHIP  OFFERS          23 

counter  or  on  the  road.  He,  above  all  others,  comes 
in  contact  with  living  and  active  conditions.  He 
sees  the  world.  He  has  constant  opportunity  to  learn 
about  men  and  things.  He  is  forced  to  meet  compe- 
tition and  opposition,  not  theoretically,  but  to  come 
face  to  face  with  it. 

His  fighting  qualities  are  marshaled  into  line.  He 
stands  and  walks  while  he  works,  while  others  remain 
seated.  He  is  in  the  active  side  of  trade,  the  side 
which  moves  and  does  the  things  most  seen.  He  is 
in  the  midst  of  experience,  and  cannot  help  absorbing 
it,  unless  he  is  a  fool.  He  has  a  better  opportunity, 
as  business  runs,  than  have  the  members  of  any  other 
department  of  trade. 

The  fact  that  the  majority  of  our  merchant  princes, 
and  other  men  of  business  mark,  have  been  salesmen, 
and  rose  from  salesmanship  to  the  command  of  busi- 
ness, indicates  that  the  salesman  has  the  best  oppor- 
tunity to  reach  the  top  round  of  the  ladder. 

It  is  true  that  great  captains  of  industry  have  sprung 
from  other  than  salesmen,  but  the  vast  majority  of 
them  sold  goods.  Many  a  bookkeeper  has  risen  to 
the  head  of  the  firm,  and  the  foreman  of  the  repair 
shop  may  go  to  any  height;  but  the  majority  of  busi- 
ness men  of  success  sold  goods  and  earned  their  repu- 
tations by  the  quality  of  their  salesmanship. 

I  am  not  depreciating  the  clerical  or  the  manu- 
facturing sides  of  business,  because  able  men  will 
succeed  anyway,  if  given  half  an  opportunity,  but 


24  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

there  is  probably  more  chance  of  success  in  the  sell- 
ing department  than  there  is  in  any  other  for  the  man 
of  activity,  for  the  man  who  is  willing  to  work,  and 
for  the  man  who  is  able  to  meet  competition  and 
opposition. 

If  one  cares  only  for  a  quiet  life,  if  he  is  not  ambi- 
tious, if  he  is  satisfied  to  let  well  enough  alone,  if  he 
would  rather  float  with  the  stream  instead  of  strug- 
gling against  it,  he  has  no  right  to  enter  the  selling 
side  of  business. 

But  if  one  is  willing  to  both  give  and  take,  to  both 
float  and  swim,  and  is  strong  enough  not  to  be  over- 
come with  present  disaster  and  with  constant  oppo- 
sition, and  if  he  enjoys  the  storms  of  life,  winning  or 
losing  as  may  be  his  turn,  but  winning  more  often 
than  losing,  then  salesmanship  offers  him  more  than 
he  is  likely  to  receive  from  any  other  department  of 
trade,  and  will  give  him  better  opportunity  to  round 
himself  out  into  the  successful  man  of  business. 


KNOWING  YOUR  GOODS 

ONE  of  the  best  salesmen  in  America,  if  one  may 
reckon  selling  ability  by  the  aggregate  of  profitable 
sales,  knew  next  to  nothing  about  the  goods  he  sold, 
and  yet  he  seemed  to  be  able  to  handle  any  kind  of  a 
selling  proposition,  and  he  earned  or  received  a  salary 
of  $10,000  a  year.  His  ignorance  was  not  concealed. 
In  fact,  he  made  no  effort  to  cover  it  up;  and,  what  is 
more  remarkable,  he  sold  goods  of  a  technical  character 
where  more  than  ordinary  knowledge  would  appear 
to  be  necessary. 

His  employers  were  men  of  national  reputation  as 
technical  experts,  and  ninety  per  cent  of  his  customers 
were  intimately  familiar  with  details;  and  yet  this 
man,  with  hardly  a  superficial  knowledge  of  his  goods 
save  price,  was  able  to  close  deals  which  seemed  im- 
possible to  other  salesmen  thoroughly  familiar  wi,th 
every  part  of  the  business. 

This  man  was  a  selling  genius,  a  wonder,  a  remark- 
able exception.  What  he  did  not  know  about  his 
goods,  he  knew  about  something  else.  He  could 
diagnose  his  customer  and  play  him  like  a  chessman 
on  the  chessboard.  He  knew  men  and  things.  He 
was  well-read  and  posted  upon  about  everything 
except  the  goods  he  sold. 


26  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

Why  did  he  allow  himself  to  be  ignorant  of  the 
goods  he  handled,  when  a  little  effort  on  his  part  would 
have  been  sufficient  to  have  made  him  familiar  with 
all  that  pertained  to  them?  There  can  be  no  accept- 
able answer.  His  ignorance  was  self-inflicted  and 
without  excuse  or  reason.  Perhaps  he  never  tried  to 
reason  it  out. 

Notwithstanding  that  he  earned  or  received  $10,000 
a  year,  he  was  a  monumental  failure,  one  of  the  greatest 
that  I  ever  met.  He  did  not  do  his  best,  because  he 
was  too  lazy  to  fully  equip  himself  for  the  battle  of 
trade.  He  simply  used  what  Nature  had  given  him, 
did  as  he  pleased,  and  succeeded  marvelously  well  if 
you  compare  his  results  with  those  of  ordinary  others, 
but  not  half  so  well  as  his  natural  ability  permitted. 
Had  he  learned  his  business,  he  would  not  have  been 
a  salesman  on  $10,000  a  year;  he  would  have  owned 
the  business. 

I  know  of  other  men  who  handle  enormous  sales, 
and  yet  they  know  little  about  their  goods.  But  all 
of  these  men,  like  the  first,  are  failures,  because  every 
one  is  a  failure,  no  matter  what  his  salary  or  income 
may  be,  if  he  does  not  do  his  best. 

The  clerk  in  the  grocery  store,  who  learns  all  he 
can,  who  tries  all  the  time,  who  is  ever  on  the  lookout 
for  opportunity,  is  a  much  greater  success,  and  de- 
serves more  credit,  than  does  the  man  who  draws 
$10,000  a  year  and  yet  is  capable  of  earning  $20,000. 

Success  is  the  product  of  one's  best.      Anything 


KNOWING  YOUR  GOODS  27 

below  that  is  failure.  Some  men  succeed  in  spite  of 
ignorance,  of  laziness,  and  of  indifference;  that  is  to 
say,  they  appear  to  succeed,  yet  every  one  of  them  is 
a  failure. 

No  man  is  a  success  who  runs  amuck  with  prin- 
ciples, who  refuses  to  accept  axiomatic  rules  and 
regulations,  who  is  under  the  domination  of  his  own 
arrogance. 

One  of  the  great  fundamental  principles  of  selling 
is  the  essentiality  of  knowing  the  goods  you  sell,  and 
there  can  be  no  real  or  good  salesmanship  without  it, 
and  there  are  no  exceptions,  although  occasionally  we 
see  what  appears  to  be  an  exception. 

If  you  have  decided  to  become  a  salesman,  and 
have  reason  to  believe  that  you  can  sell  goods,  the 
first  thing  for  you  to  do  is  to  learn  about  your  goods, 
to  know  them  from  the  ground  up,  and,  further,  you 
should  be  familiar  with  similar  goods  whether  carried 
by  your  house  or  by  other  houses. 

This  knowledge  of  your  goods,  even  to  the  lower 
technical  side  of  them,  is  necessary  whether  you  be 
behind  the  counter,  or  on  the  road,  or  travel  from 
house  to  house. 

All  the  magnetism  in  the  world,  the  supreme  power 
of  diagnosis  and  superlative  selling  ability,  will  not 
enable  you  to  do  your  best  without  a  knowledge  of 
the  goods  you  sell. 

But  let  it  be  understood  that  knowledge  of  the 
goods  without  anything  else  is  worth  about  as  little 


28  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

as  would  be  a  barrel  of  oxygen  to  the  chemist  who 
wanted  to  make  air  and  found  it  impossible  to  obtain 
nitrogen. 

There  are  men,  dismal  failures  at  selling,  who  have 
the  most  intimate  knowledge  of  their  goods.  This 
knowledge,  with  something  else,  rounds  out  the  per- 
fect salesman.  By  itself,  like  any  other  one  thing,  it 
is  worth  practically  nothing. 

How  far  should  this  knowledge  go?  To  the  bottom, 
I  should  say,  even  to  the  very  creation  of  things  which 
go  to  make  the  goods  you  sell. 

If  you  are  selling  cotton  goods,  for  instance,  it  would 
be  well  for  you  to  know  how  cotton  is  planted  and 
how  it  grows,  its  condition  when  it  leaves  the  field 
and  how  it  is  turned  into  cloth. 

Perhaps  this  knowledge  may  not  seem  to  appear  to 
be  valuable,  and  it  is  quite  probable  that  you  may 
never  directly  use  it;  but  this  intimate  familiarity 
with  every  part  of  the  goods,  beginning  with  Nature's 
work,  like  all  fundamental  matter,  will  enable  you  to 
better  present  your  wares  to  your  customer. 

Buyers  are  naturally  question-askers.  Salesmen 
are  logically  answerers  of  questions.  You  never  know 
when  a  question  will  be  asked,  and  nothing  pleases 
the  customer  better  than  to  feel  that  the  salesman 
before  him  is  thoroughly  posted,  not  only  in  selling, 
but  in  the  making  of  the  goods  from  the  raw  material. 

So  much  do  I  believe  in  this  that  I  honestly  feel 
that  a  saleswoman  selling  hosiery  can  make  more  and 


KNOWING  YOUR  GOODS  29 

better  sales  if  she  can  trace  a  pair  of  stockings  to  the 
very  ground  which  produced  the  raw  material,  although 
she  may  never  impart  that  knowledge  to  anybody. 

Your  knowledge  should  extend  into  the  use  of  the 
goods.  What  is  any  particular  thing  good  for?  What 
will  it  do?  What  will  it  not  do?  How  long  will  it 
last?  Why  is  it  better  for  the  customer  to  purchase 
it  than  anything  similar? 

You  should  learn  to  appraise  values,  to  know  quali- 
ties, to  be  able  to  explain  why  a  certain  brand  is  better 
than  another,  to  make  profitable  comparisons. 

It  is  not  only  necessary  to  know  about  the  goods 
you  sell,  but  you  should  be  familiar  with  all  similar 
goods  sold  by  your  house  or  by  other  houses,  all  sub- 
stitutes and  things  which  may  be  substituted  for  them. 
You  should  be  a  storehouse  of  technical  information 
for  the  customer  to  draw  upon  as  he  may  elect. 

I  would  not  advise  you  to  throw  this  information 
at  your  customer,  to  force  it  into  him,  to  talk  scien- 
tifically and  technically  on  every  occasion;  but  you 
should  have  it  on  tap,  ready  for  immediate  delivery, 
and  you  should  carry  it  even  though  you  may  never 
directly  use  it  in  your  selling. 

Educators  and  others  differ  materially,  but  all  of 
them  consider  that  certain  academic  fundamentals 
are  essential  to  the  building  up  of  general  education, 
even  though  some  of  the  so-called  fundamentals  may 
not  be  used  directly;  but  they  are  considered  neces- 
sary for  the  foundation  of  the  education  to  come,  and 


30  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

without  them  the  education  that  we  are  using  from 
day  to  day  would  totter  and  fall. 

These  same  principles  apply  to  an  intimate  tech- 
nical knowledge  of  the  goods  you  sell,  even  though 
you  may  seldom  impart  the  information.  But  if  you 
have  this  knowledge,  you  are  better  able  to  distribute 
the  other  information  which  is  generally  wanted  and 
which  could  not  exist  without  the  inner  knowledge 
upon  which  it  rests. 

Upon  general  principles,  the  more  you  know  about 
your  goods,  the  more  you  know  about  ho\y  they  are 
made  and  sold,  even  to  climatic  conditions,  the  more 
and  better  sales  you  can  make. 

But  there  is  such  a  thing  as  over-doing  it,  of  keeping 
too  close  to  the  bottom,  of  spending  too  much  time 
upon  the  techniques,  and  becoming  too  letter-perfect. 
It  is  not  necessary  for  you  to  know  as  much  about 
the  manufacture  of  the  goods  as  does  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  factory,  and  you  need  not  be  as  skilled 
in  details  as  are  the  workmen  at  the  bench  or  before 
the  loom.  A  close  familiarity  with  them,  covering 
all  generalities  and  a  general  knowledge  of  the  details, 
is  likely  to  be  sufficient.  It  should  be  considered  a 
necessary  part  of  salesmanship,  and  you  should  not 
feel  yourself  fully  equipped  without  it. 

How  can  you  obtain  this  knowledge?    In  many  ways. 

Practically  every  industry  has  its  literature.  Your 
employer  has,  or  should  have,  a  business  library.  If 
he  has  not,  buy  the  books  or  get  them  from  some  library. 


KNOWING  YOUR  GOODS  31 

The  trade-paper  gives  much  information.  Read  it 
regularly.  And  if  there  is  more  than  one  trade-paper 
devoted  to  your  line,  read  them  all,  the  poor  ones 
and  the  good  ones,  for  the  poorest  paper  may  contain 
valuable  clippings. 

Interview  your  fellow-salesmen.  Play  a  regular 
game  of  profitable  conversation.  Go  to  the  heads  of 
your  department  and  of  other  similar  departments. 
Become  friendly  with  the  superintendent  or  foreman 
of  the  factory.  All  of  these  men  are  glad  to  impart 
information.  Nothing  pleases  a  well-posted  man 
better  than  to  tell  what  he  knows  to  the  fellow  who 
wants  to  know  it. 

Visit  every  part  of  the  factory,  if  your  concern 
maintains  one.  See  everything  made,  and  begin  with 
the  raw  material.  If  you  are  working  for  a  jobber  or 
retail  house,  get  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the  super- 
intendent of  a  factory.  He  will  gladly  accommodate 
you,  and  think  all  the  more  of  you  for  asking  the 
privilege.  Probably  you  will  learn  more  at  the 
factory  than  at  any  other  place,  so  far  as  the  quality 
of  the  goods  is  concerned,  but  do  not  stop  with  the 
factory. 

Although  things  are  very  much  alike,  and  there 
are  few  exclusive  articles,  everything  has  some  specific 
character;  and  it  is  necessary  for  you  to  be  able  to 
locate  this  advantage  or  peculiarity  and  to  talk  under- 
standingly  about  it. 

Your  business  reading  should  not  be  confined  to 


32  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

the  goods  you  sell,  but  should  cover  all  similar  prod- 
ucts and  business  in  general. 

Next  to  the  factory,  the  best  information  is  likely 
to  come  from  contact  with  other  salesmen.  Here  you 
may  learn  by  observation  and  questioning  the  methods 
of  handling  goods,  not  only  those  used  by  your  firm, 
but  those  of  others,  and  you  should  analyze  the  differ- 
ence. Each  salesman  will  have  a  new-to-you  message 
of  information. 

A  familiarity  with  transportation  facilities  will  not 
come  amiss. 

A  thorough  knowledge  of  what  you  sell  is  a  funda- 
mental part  of  salesmanship,  an  asset  which  con- 
tinuously comes  into  play  and  without  which  the 
fullness  of  result  is  impossible. 


KNOWING  SOMETHING  BESIDES  YOUR 
GOODS 

THERE  are  recorded  cases  of  men  of  marked  and 
extraordinary  achievement,  who  have  succeeded  in 
making  money  and  in  successfully  managing  vast 
enterprises,  without  being  familiar  with  much  of  any- 
thing except  with  the  goods  which  directly  pertained 
to  their  specific  business. 

I  have  one  man  in  mind,  who  was  almost  completely 
ignorant  of  everything  outside  the  place  of  his  work, 
and  who  could  hardly  read  and  write;  yet  he  accumu- 
lated millions  of  dollars  and  obtained  an  international 
reputation  as  a  money-getter. 

I  have  met,  and  am  more  or  less  acquainted  with, 
quite  a  number  of  men,  all  of  them  money-makers, 
all  of  them  business  successes,  and  yet  they  know 
little  of  the  world  at  large,  practically  all  of  their 
knowledge  being  limited  to  the  things  which  are 
directly  a  part  of  their  business.  Their  houses  are 
places  to  sleep  in,  and  their  magnificent  dining-rooms 
to  them  are  no  better  than  quick-lunch  counters. 
They  do  not  even  know  how  to  sleep  or  eat  properly. 
They  care  for  neither  literature  nor  art,  nor  even  for 
pleasure.  Dissipation  does  not  attract  them,  not 
because  of  their  moral  character,  but  because  they 
have  not  the  time  to  spare  for  it. 


34  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

These  men  are  exceptions,  and  they  have  succeeded 
in  spite  of  their  ignorance.  But  none  of  them  would 
think  of  attributing  any  of  their  achievements  to  their 
ignorance  and  lack  of  interest  in  things  outside  of 
their  business. 

On  the  other  hand,  many  men  give  too  much 
time  to  outside  or  general  matters,  to  the  sacrifice  of 
business. 

We  cannot  serve  two  masters,  either  in  business  or 
out  of  it.  We  cannot  do  two  things  equally  well.  We 
must  have  a  principal  interest,  and  to  that  we  must 
devote  the  major  part  of  our  working  time. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  astronomer  would  never  have 
discovered  a  star  if  he  had  not  given  the  bulk  of  his 
time  to  star-gazing;  and  it  is  as  true  that  the  salesman 
must  devote  more  hours  to  his  business  than  to  things 
outside  of  it  if  he  would  succeed  in  selling  goods. 

This  is  an  age  of  specialties  and  of  specialists.  Un- 
less we  know  one  thing  better  than  all  else,  we  shall 
never  make  more  than  mediocre  success.  Yet  the 
value  of  our  specific  knowledge  is  dependent  upon 
a  reasonable  amount  of  general  information,  which 
allows  us  to  better  accumulate  and  distribute  specific 
knowledge. 

A  knowledge  of  things  in  general,  a  familiarity  with 
affairs  outside  of  one's  specific  work,  not  only  enables 
its  possessor  to  do  better  work  and  accomplish  more 
in  a  business  way,  but  it  makes  him  a  better  man 
and  a  better  citizen.  Without  a  knowledge  of  some- 


SOMETHING  BESIDES  GOODS  35 

thing  besides  what  pertains  to  his  business,  he  would 
be  a  mere  automatic  worker  and  a  social  dummy. 

The  salesman,  particularly,  should  be  a  storehouse 
of  general  information,  that  he  may  impart  it  to  the 
customer  who  wants  it  or  asks  for  it.  Unless  he  be 
posted  upon  things  in  general,  has  a  reasonable  knowl- 
edge of  the  rudiments  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  of 
politics  and  of  literature,  and  particularly  of  men  and 
things,  he  will  betray  his  ignorance  to  his  own  detri- 
ment, and  will  not  be  able  to  meet  his  customer  ex- 
cept upon  a  merely  trading  basis. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  salesman  should  be  a 
connoisseur  of  art,  or  of  science,  or  of  literature,  —  a 
walking  cyclopedia  of  one  thing  or  an  encyclopedia  of 
everything.  He  has  not  the  time,  and,  if  he  had  it,  it 
would  not  be  necessary  for  him  to  be  a  conversational 
expert  and  a  general  distributer  of  learning.  But 
unless  he  can  talk  understandingly  upon  general  sub- 
jects, and  especially  upon  those  which  bear  some 
relation  to  his  business,  he  is  at  a  great  disadvantage. 

The  traveling  salesmen  meets  active  men  of  money, 
who  have  automobiles  and  motor-boats,  horses  and 
other  hobbies.  If  he  knows  about  the  things  his  cus- 
tomers are  interested  in,  he  will  be  a  hail-fellow  well 
met,  and  can  get  much  closer  to  them  than  would  be 
possible  if  he  were  familiar  only  with  his  business. 

The  retail  salesman  meets  people  of  every  class, 
and,  although  he  does  not  have  the  same  opportunity 
for  conversation  and  discussion  as  that  presented  to 


36  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

his  brother  on  the  road,  a  general  knowledge  of  general 
things  is  likely  to  come  into  play  every  day  and  several 
times  a  day. 

One  should  certainly  know  something  about  the 
weather  and  how  to  intelligently  prognosticate  to- 
morrow's conditions.  If  the  customer  in  front  of  the 
counter  says:  "I  hope  it  will  not  rain  to-morrow/' 
and  she  probably  has  good  reasons  for  her  preference, 
she  will  think  more  of  the  salesman  who  gives  her  a 
reason  why  he  thinks  it  will  or  will  not  rain,  than  of 
the  one  who  says  he  does  not  know  or  says  nothing. 
Even  this  little  thing,  the  weather,  is  worth  studying, 
and  so  is  every  other  thing  which  becomes  a  part  of 
the  daily  life  of  the  customer,  that  the  salesman  may 
be  able  to  reply  intelligently,  at  least,  and  to  answer 
any  reasonable  question  with  some  degree  of  accuracy. 

How  can  you  find  out  about  things  outside  of  your 
business?  Read  all  you  can  get  hold  of,  and  have 
the  time  for,  about  things  of  general  interest.  Enter 
into  conversation  with  intelligent  people  of  experi- 
ence. Make  it  a  point,  when  you  talk  with  anybody, 
to  introduce  a  subject  which  he  is  more  familiar  with 
than  you  are.  Every  one  likes  to  talk  about  his  hobby 
or  to  show  his  knowledge.  Encourage  him.  It  will  do 
him  good  and  do  you  good.  It  is  a  mutual  exchange 
of  satisfaction. 

Become  a  persistent  and  consistent  reader  of  books 
and  periodicals  containing  general  information,  and, 
especially,  those  carrying  matter  which  constantly 


SOMETHING  BESIDES  GOODS  37 

comes  into  your  sphere  of  business  and  life.  A  little 
reading,  even  thirty  minutes  a  day  of  it,  if  well  se- 
lected, will  cover  a  vast  amount  of  ground.  But  above 
all  play  the  game  of  intelligent  conversation,  always 
bringing  up  some  subject  of  general  interest,  and  make 
special  effort  to  converse  with  well-posted  and  up-to- 
date  men  and  women. 

Attend  lectures  and  talks.  Join  some  organization 
outside  of  the  business  club.  Information  is  in  the 
air,  and  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  collect  it.  It  is  free 
for  the  asking. 

The  reader  is  referred  especially  to  the  chapters, 
"What  to  Read"  and  "What  to  Do  Outside  of 
Business." 


DIAGNOSING  THE  CUSTOMER 

SALESMANSHIP  is  a  battle  on  the  field  of  business 
strife,  the  seller  on  the  one  side  and  the  buyer  on  the 
other.  Yet  it  may  be  a  friendly  fight,  and  there  need 
be  no  bitterness  in  it;  for,  in  the  consummation 
of  a  good  sale,  both  parties  win.  But  it  is  a  contest, 
nevertheless. 

The  proficient  general  never  enters  a  battle,  or 
orders  his  troops  upon  the  field,  without  attempting 
to  size-up  the  strength  and  character  of  the  opposer. 
It  is  almost  as  necessary  that  he  should  know  the 
power  and  character  of  the  other  side  as  it  is  to  be 
familiar  with  his  own  forces  and  conditions. 

The  difference  between  an  ordinary  practicing 
physician  and  the  specialist  is  largely  in  the  power 
of  diagnosis  possessed  by  the  latter.  Every  regular 
practitioner,  the  graduate  of  a  medical  school,  is 
familiar  with  the  science  and  practice  of  medicine; 
and  almost  any  educated  doctor,  whether  he  be  an 
expert  or  not,  can  effect  a  cure  of  a  curable  disease,  if 
he  knows  what  the  matter  is  with  the  patient.  But 
many  a  physician  does  not  know  when  and  where  to 
use  the  treatments  and  medicines  with  which  he  is 
familiar.  What  would  cure  one  may  make  another 
worse. 


DIAGNOSING  THE  CUSTOMER  39 

The  so-called  specialist  or  expert  may  not  know 
any  more  about  medicine  than  does  the  experienced 
family  doctor,  and  may  not,  perhaps,  be  as  familiar 
with  general  medicine  as  is  the  ordinary  family  phy- 
sician, but  he  possesses  the  power  of  diagnosis.  In 
most  cases  he  can  determine  what  the  ailment  or 
trouble  is.  Unprofessionally  speaking,  he  sizes-up  the 
patient,  finds  out  what  the  matter  is  with  him,  and 
when  he  has  reached  this  point,  he  is  reasonably  sure 
of  curing  him,  if  the  disease  be  curable. 

The  successful  salesman,  like  any  other  specialist, 
owes  his  more  than  ordinary  success,  not  altogether 
to  his  knowledge  of  the  goods  and  his  ability  to  describe 
and  present  them,  but,  to  a  very  considerable  extent,  to 
his  ability  to  diagnose  the  buyer,  to  know  the  buyer,  — 
his  desires,  his  necessities,  and  his  characteristics,  in- 
cluding his  hobbies,  if  he  has  any. 

I  think  it  is  nearly  as  essential  to  know  how  to 
know  the  buyer  as  it  is  to  know  and  describe  the  goods. 
At  any  rate,  no  one  has  succeeded  in  climbing  beyond 
the  second  round  of  the  ladder  of  salesmanship  who 
has  not  possessed  the  ability  to  size-up  and  to  diag- 
nose the  customer  with  some  degree  of  accuracy. 

Unless  the  salesman  understands  the  buyer  he  is  at 
a  great  disadvantage.  Of  course,  he  can  obtain  in 
many  cases  advance  information  about  the  man  he 
expects  to  meet,  and  be  prepared,  therefore,  to  see 
him;  but  this  advance  information,  coming  from 
others,  does  not  and  cannot  take  the  place  of  the 


40  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

ability  to  personally  size-up  the  customer  and  the 
situation,  and  to  do  it  instantaneously  if  necessary. 

Every  one,  buyers  not  excepted,  has  a  personality, 
more  or  less  hobbies  and  eccentricities.  The  ability  to 
obtain  a  knowledge  of  them,  either  by  inquiry  or  by 
intuition,  gives  the  salesman  an  immense  advantage. 

Some  sales-managers  consider  the  power  of  diagnosis 
to  be  more  poignant  than  any  other  factor  in  salesman- 
ship, but  I  will  not  discuss  its  relative  importance.  So 
long  as  it  is  necessary  to  good  salesmanship,  and  expert 
salesmanship  is  impossible  without  it,  it  may  be  con- 
sidered at  the  head  or  at  the  foot,  as  you  choose  to 
place  it. 

Understanding  or  diagnosing  the  customer  is  that 
ability  to  feel  as  the  customer  feels,  to  get  inside  of  the 
customer,  so  to  speak,  to  see  both  sides  at  the  same 
time,  your  side  and  his  side.  This  cannot  very  well  be 
taught,  but  a  few  suggestions  may  be  of  assistance. 

Become  a  student  of  human  nature.  If  this  art 
does  not  come  naturally  to  you,  cultivate  it  to  the  best 
of  your  ability.  Cultivation  will  make  even  barren 
soil  somewhat  fertile.  Study  every  one  who  approaches 
you,  whether  he  be  a  customer  or  not.  Attempt  to 
see  every  side  of  life  and  to  be  in  sympathy  with  those 
you  come  in  contact  with,  especially  with  those  who 
are  different  from  you.  Discuss  likes  and  dislikes  with 
others,  and  human  nature  in  general. 

Consider  every  one  you  see  as  a  type,  and  attempt 
to  understand  his  characteristics.  You  will  soon  learn 


DIAGNOSING  THE  CUSTOMER  41 

that  different  people  require  different  treatments,  dif- 
ferent methods  of  approach,  different  forms  of  argu- 
ments, that  some  will  take  kindly  to  strenuous  methods, 
that  others  require  positiveness  or  like  hammer-blow 
arguments,  while  others  have  to  be  handled  carefully 
and  with  the  exercise  of  the  greatest  discretion. 

Become  acquainted  with  people,  —  the  more  the 
better.  Experiment  with  them.  Approach  them  in 
different  ways.  Talk  to  them  along  different  lines. 
Do  not  have  one  form  of  argument,  or  one  method  of 
selling  goods,  at  a  sacrifice  of  all  others.  Do  not  be 
stagy.  Be  elastic  and  pliable.  Of  course,  you  should 
not  outrage  the  general  principles  of  salesmanship,  but 
the  same  principles  may  be  applied  in  different  ways. 

Especially  associate  with  salesmen,  traveling  sales- 
men, and  counter-men.  Get  hold  of  their  ideas  and 
study  their  methods,  and  consider  every  one  you  come 
in  contact  with  as  a  customer,  adapting  yourself  and 
your  conversation  to  him.  See  what  pleases  him  and 
what  does  not.  Learn  by  experience  what  is  acceptable 
to  him  and  what  is  antagonistical.  This  you  can  do 
whether  you  are  behind  the  counter  or  on  the  road,  for 
in  both  places  you  meet  representatives  of  every  class. 

Especially  study  faces.  Learn  to  recognize  at  first 
sight,  if  you  can,  the  nervous  customer  from  the  passive. 
Some  folks  enjoy  a  lot  of  talk  and  pleasantries,  while 
others  are  matter-of-fact  and  will  not  tolerate  other 
than  straight  talk. 

You  will  not  always  strike  it  right,  any  more  than 


42  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

other  specialists  do,  but  a  careful  study  of  conditions 
should  enable  you  to  be  more  often  right  than  wrong. 
You  will  discover  that  there  are  certain  methods  which 
are  acceptable  to  practically  every  customer,  and  that 
there  are  others  which  must  be  used  less  frequently. 

Avoid  all  unusual  methods,  or  any  display  of  the 
erratic  or  over-original,  unless  you  are  absolutely  sure 
that  they  will  appeal  to  your  customer.  Do  not  break 
over  conventional  forms  unless  you  are  reasonably  cer- 
tain that  the  customer  will  appreciate  your  originality 
and  display  of  brilliancy.  Keep  in  the  beaten  track 
until  you  are  able  to  spread  out.  There  is  safety  and 
some  success  in  the  middle  of  the  road,  although  more 
than  ordinary  achievement  is  dependent  upon  being 
able  to  travel  all  over  the  road  without  losing  your  way. 

In  every  town  there  are  good  salesmen,  far  more 
successful  than  the  average.  They  possess  something 
which  contributes  to  their  success  and  which  the  rank 
and  file  do  not  have.  Get  in  contact  with  them  and 
study  them  closely.  Ask  their  advice,  and  remember 
that  some  people  can  do  a  thing  which  you  cannot  do, 
because  they  have  greater  personality,  more  force,  and 
more  ability.  Therefore,  it  is  not  always  safe  to  copy 
another's  method  unless  you  have  his  ability  and  re- 
semble him  generally. 

Of  course,  you  will  be  always  under  the  risk  of  chance, 
for  there  is  no  sure  method  or  any  form  or  rule  that  is 
sure  to  win.  But  the  more  you  study  business  and  the 
conditions  which  surround  it,  the  more  you  get  into 


DIAGNOSING  THE  CUSTOMER  43 

close  relations  with  them,  the  easier  it  will  be  for  you 
to  know  men  and  things,  and  there  will  be  a  greater 
likelihood  of  meeting  with  success. 

If  you  have  any  ability  at  all  and  are  persistent, 
you  will  sooner  or  later  learn  how  to  somewhat  diag- 
nose the  customer,  particularly  if  you  allow  your  fail- 
ures to  lead  you  to  success.  If  you  size-up  a  customer 
wrong  and  fail  to  make  a  sale,  you  have  learned  a  val- 
uable lesson,  perhaps  of  more  importance  to  you  than 
if  you  had  succeeded. 

Remember  that  you  must  cater  to  the  customer  as 
you  cann,ot  compel  him  to  bend  to  you.  This  being  the 
case,  there  has  been  established  a  great  law  of  sales- 
manship, which  compels  you,  as  the  salesman,  to  learn 
to  understand  the  customer,  to  anticipate  his  wants, 
that  he  may  always  welcome  you,  be  glad  to  see  you 
and  to  talk  with  you,  whether  or  not  he  buys  of  you. 


THE  INSIDE  SALESMAN 

EXACT  figures  are  impossible,  but  I  think  I  may  ven- 
ture the  statement  that  there  are  six  times  more  men 
and  women  selling  goods  from  behind  the  counter  or 
inside  the  store  than  there  are  of  those  who  travel  on 
the  road. 

The  inside  salesman  works  exclusively  indoors,  and 
waits  upon  the  customers  who  call  at  the  store  or  place 
of  business,  and  he  does  not  go  outside  for  trade.  He 
takes  what  comes  to  him  for  the  most  part,  although 
he  can  solicit  on  the  outside  by  inviting  people  to  come 
to  him. 

The  fact  that  a  proportion  of  inside  sellers  act  as 
though  they  were  waiters  and  not  sellers  of  goods,  and 
are,  or  appear  to  be,  indifferent  to  building  up  a  clientele 
of  their  own,  and  seem  to  be  uninterested  in  their  goods 
or  their  business,  must  not  be  taken  as  a  reflection  ex- 
clusively directed  to  inside  sales-people,  for  this  con- 
dition exists  among  salesmen  on  the  road,  although  the 
traveling  man,  as  he  runs,  is  usually  more  aggressive 
and  shows  greater  enterprise. 

We  are  all  children  of  circumstances  and  influenced 
by  environment.  Only  a  part  of  us  do  what  we  do  not 
have  to  do,  and  the  majority  of  sellers  of  goods,  as  of 
all  other  people,  possess  ordinary  ability,  and  their 


THE  INSIDE  SALESMAN  45 

movements  are  often  confined  within  the  circle  of 
conventionality. 

Because  the  traveling  man  —  the  outside  salesman 
—  meets  obstacles  at  every  turn,  and  is  obliged  to  take 
the  initiative  for  the  most  part,  he  is,  from  force  of 
circumstances,  more  aggressive,  as  a  rule.  If  he  were 
otherwise,  he  could  not  sell  goods  to  any  advantage. 
Environment  and  persistent  conditions  force  him  to 
exert  himself.  If  he  does  not,  he  fails. 

While,  on  the  other  hand,  the  inside  man,  whether 
or  not  he  possesses  a  higher  or  a  lower  grade  of  ability, 
finds  that  he  may  make  his  living  by  waiting  on  people 
and  by  not  always  taking  the  initiative.  Because  he 
may  do  this,  he  is  not  forced,  as  the  outside  man  is,  to 
exert  himself  at  all  times. 

Then,  the  inside  man  is  directly  under  the  discipline 
and  orders  of  his  superiors,  and  is  quite  apt  to  follow 
directions  more  or  less  blindly;  while  his  outside 
brother,  usually  away  from  headquarters,  must  do  a 
lot  of  self-thinking,  and  order  and  control  himself  to  an 
extent  which  is  not  so  necessary  for  the  man  directly 
in  contact  with  his  employer.  This  condition,  much 
more  than  the  individual  ability  or  inability  of  the  sales- 
man, is  largely  responsible  for  the  indifference  shown 
by  many  inside  sellers  of  goods. 

I  do  not  propose  to  compare  the  innate  ability  or  the 
real  character  and  ambition  of  either  with  the  other. 
There  are  bright  men  and  nonentities  on  both  sides, 
men  both  of  enterprise  and  of  progressiveness  and  rep- 


46  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

resentatives  of  the  "don't-care"  and  "won't-work" 
classes.  If  there  is  less  activity  on  the  one  side  than 
on  the  other,  it  is  because  of  conditions,  largely  imagi- 
nary ones. 

Some  inside  sellers  think  that  they  do  not  have  the 
same  incentive  or  opportunity  as  that  given  to  their 
outside  colleagues.  Assuming,  for  the  sake  of  argu- 
ment, that  this  be  so,  in  some  cases  it  does  not  furnish 
any  good  reason  why  the  inside  man  should  refuse  to 
practice  the  initiative. 

There  is  opportunity  behind  the  counter  and  outside 
of  the  store.  Opportunity  is  in  the  very  air  we  breathe. 
It  is  everywhere,  even  in  the  poorest  and  most  miserably 
conducted  place  of  business  where  the  employee  may 
seem  to  be  but  a  part  of  an  automatically  run  business- 
getting  machine. 

But  remember  that  opportunity  never  carries  a  torch. 
It  travels  by  by-ways  and  along  the  side  streets.  It 
does  not  parade  in  the  middle  of  the  road.  It  makes 
no  noise.  No  herald  sounds  its  approach.  It  passes 
along  in  the  quiet  of  the  starless  night.  It  makes  little 
effort  to  meet  anybody.  It  seldom  extends  its  hand. 
It  minds  its  own  business.  But  it  is  ever  ready  to 
grasp  the  hand  held  out  to  it  and  to  be  a  permanent 
guest  in  the  house  of  progress. 

I  have  heard  of  opportunity-less  stores,  where  the 
sun  of  chance  never  shines.  But  I  have  never  seen  one, 
and  I  have  never  found  any  one  who  was  willing  to 
make  affidavit  that  he  had  seen  one.  Even  the  store 


THE  INSIDE  SALESMAN  47 

of  perpetual  grind  cannot  help  grinding  out  some 
opportunity. 

Let  the  inside  man  particularly  bear  in  mind  that 
no  work  counts  to  anybody's  credit,  if  it  is  done  wholly 
because  it  has  to  be  done.  The  work  of  success-making 
is  that  which  is  done  voluntarily  and  not  spurred  to 
activity  under  the  whip  of  business  or  necessity. 

Men  of  more  than  ordinary  success  take  the  initia- 
tive, do  their  level  best,  because  they  want  to,  not 
because  they  have  to.  They  do  their  duty,  never 
shrink,  and,  what  is  more,  they  do  more  than  their 
plain  duty.  Doing  what  we  are  told  to  do,  and  only 
that,  accomplishes  the  minimum  of  result. 

The  inside  salesman  has  one  advantage  over  the 
traveling  man  in  that  he  has  less  competition,  and, 
further,  because  his  customers  come  to  him  for  the  most 
part,  and  some  of  them  will  approach  him  if  he  makes 
no  effort  to  attract  their  attention.  This  condition, 
unfortunately  for  the  lazy  and  the  indifferent,  tends 
to  breed  inactivity,  but  it  gives  the  progressive  sales- 
man a  splendid  opportunity  to  shine  in  decided 
contrast. 

Because  it  is  possible  to  make  a  living  inside  the  store 
without  being  progressive,  the  man  of  action  has  all  the 
more  chance  to  show  and  to  use  what  is  in  him.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  takes  a  higher  grade  of  character  to 
be  successful  inside  the  store  than  it  does  to  succeed 
on  the  road,  because  work  done  which  does  not  have  to 
be  done  always  springs  from  the  highest  motives. 


48  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

Because  trade  comes  to  the  store,  does  not  furnish 
any  good  reason  why  the  inside  man  cannot  use  the 
progressiveness  and  tactics  of  the  road.  He  has  a  fine 
opportunity  to  learn  business,  because  he  is  close  to 
the  heart  of  it.  He  may  become  the  head  of  a  depart- 
ment, or  even  reach  the  position  of  superintendent,  or 
gain  an  interest  or  a  partnership. 

If  he  would  exert  himself,  as  does  the  man  on  the 
road,  the  chances  are  that  he  would  not  remain  behind 
the  counter  indefinitely,  but  would  eventually  become 
a  manager  of  a  part  of  the  business. 

He  has  his  choice  of  sleeping  or  of  working,  of  doing 
his  best  or  of  merely  making  a  living. 

He  has  another  advantage,  and  that  is  that  he  can 
retain  his  position  if  he  does  fairly  good  work  and  at- 
tends to  business.  The  store,  by  its  advertising  and 
enterprise,  has  furnished  him  with  material  to  work 
upon.  With  half  of  the  selling  ability  and  effort  made 
by  the  man  on  the  road  he  can  earn  his  living.  And  this, 
instead  of  keeping  him  back,  should  spur  him  on  to 
greater  effort. 

Every  salesman  is  watched.  If  he  lags  or  loafs,  no 
one  takes  any  interest  in  him.  He  will  simply  be  tol- 
erated. If  he  shows  enterprise,  he  is  encouraged  and 
recognized,  perhaps  not  every  time,  but  his  proficiency 
is  sure  to  pay  in  the  end. 

The  dead-centers  behind  the  counter  exist  because 
of  lack  of  energy  and  of  an  unwillingness  to  do  more 
than  ordinary  duty. 


THE  INSIDE  SALESMAN  49 

The  inside  man  should  learn  his  business,  know  all 
about  the  goods  he  sells,  how  they  are  made  and  where 
they  come  from,  and  he  should  be  somewhat  familiar 
with  the  goods  outside  of  his  department. 

Further,  he  should  learn  business,  —  its  principles, 
its  ethics,  and  its  actions.  He  should  not  be  unfamiliar 
with  the  methods  of  other  stores  and  with  similar  goods 
carried  by  them. 

It  would  pay  him  to  learn  his  goods  from  the  ground 
up,  to  know  how  the  material  is  grown  or  obtained, 
how  it  is  manufactured,  and  what  it  is  good  for  and  is 
not  good  for. 

He  should  read  about  his  goods  in  books  and  in  trade 
papers,  that  he  may  be  known  as  the  best-posted  man 
in  his  department.  This  information  will  help  him  in 
many  ways,  not  only  with  his  employer,  but  with  the 
customer,  for  the  customer  is  looking  for  advice  and 
takes  kindly  to  expert  suggestion. 

He  has  an  unusual  opportunity  to  study  human 
nature,  for  he  meets  all  kinds  of  people.  He  sees  them 
when  they  are  happy  and  when  they  are  sad.  He  can 
help  them  or  hinder  them. 

One  reason  why  many  inside  salesmen  do  not  succeed 
is  because  they  are  perpetual  fault-finders,  kickers,  and 
knockers.  They  look  upon  the  dark^not  the  bright, 
side  of  their  positions.  They  seem  to  think  that  they 
have  no  opportunity  and  that  the  man  over  them  has 
no  interest  in  them.  They  forget  that  the  business 
man  is  in  business  for  profit,  that  the  salesman  is  a 


50  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

part  of  his  business  army,  that  without  him  he  cannot 
do  business,  and  that,  if  he  be  a  man  of  any  business 
capacity,  he  cannot  help  recognizing  faithful  and  pro- 
gressive service. 

It  is  idle  to  talk  about  favoritism  and  about  being 
kept  down,  although  this  condition  may  occasionally 
exist.  Business  is  business,  and  business  plays  no 
favorites,  except  with  men  who  are  deficient  in  business 
acumen. 

The  salesman  may  be  an  automatic  seller,  a  sort  of 
human  slot-machine,  if  he  will;  or  he  can  be  a  thinking, 
acting,  doing  man,  if  he  prefers.  If  he  thinks,  studies, 
and  throws  the  best  of  himself  into  his  work,  even  the 
meanest  employer  is  likely  to  promote  him  from  selfish 
motives. 

It  is  pretty  difficult  to  keep  a  good  man  down,  as 
good  men  run,  although  promotion  does  not  seem  to  be 
always  equitably  distributed.  While  many  of  us  do 
not  get  what  we  deserve,  we  are  pretty  sure  not  to 
receive  what  we  do  not  deserve;  and  few  so-called 
favorites  stay  there,  if  they  get  there,  unless  they  are 
worthy  of  getting  there. 

The  average  inside  salesman  does  not  respect  himself 
as  he  should.  He  does  not  realize  that  he  is  a  working 
part  of  the  great  business  machine,  and  not  an  insig- 
nificant cog  in  a  brainless  wheel. 

Activity  counts  behind  the  counter  and  everywhere 
else. 

If  you  are  inside  the  store,  help  to  make  your  depart- 


THE  INSIDE  SALESMAN  51 

ment  the  most  attractive  one  there.  If  you  do  not  have 
the  goods,  you  have  yourself.  Do  not  be  a  mere  seller, 
but  a  demonstrator  and  an  exhibiter. 

If  you  are  not  a  fluent  talker,  learn  to  talk.  You 
can  improve  in  this  direction,  if  you  will.  You  can 
learn  about  your  goods,  and  when  you  do,  you  will 
find  that  it  is  pretty  easy  to  talk  about  things  you 
know  about. 

If  you  are  always  on  the  alert,  are  well-posted,  and 
interest  fairly  radiates  from  your  face,  some  of  your 
customers  will  speak  well  of  you,  and  the  superintend- 
ent is  sure  to  notice  you. 

You  cannot  always  satisfy  the  customer  with  the 
goods  you  sell,  but  you  can,  if  you  will,  usually  satisfy 
him  with  yourself.  You  are  not  responsible  if  the 
goods  do  not  suit,  but  you  are  usually  responsible  if 
you  do  not  suit.  There  may  be  something  the  matter 
with  the  goods,  but  do  not  let  there  be  anything  the 
matter  with  you. 

Remember  that  you  are  between  two  factors  or  ex- 
tremes, your  employer  who  is  anxious  to  have  you  sell 
goods,  and  your  customer  who  usually  can  get  along 
without  him,  you,  or  the  goods,  for  he  can  buy  else- 
where. To  succeed  you  must  stand  between  the  two 
for  the  benefit  of  both. 

Politeness  behind  the  counter  is  indispensable.  The 
more  of  it  the  better,  and  there  is  very  little  danger  of 
your  over-doing  it.  Treat  your  customer  as  you  would 
a  guest  in  your  house.  Radiate  good-will  and  cordiality. 


52  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

Be  known  as  the  customer's  friend,  the  man  it  pays  to 
trade  with. 

Do  not  look  for  promotion  all  the  time  or  worry  too 
much  about  recognition.  If  you  do  not  get  it,  perhaps 
a  part  of  the  fault  is  yours;  but  you  are  pretty  sure  to 
get  there  if  you  deserve  to,  sooner  or  later. 

There  are  a  few  concerns  who  do  not  give  opportunity 
to  their  employees,  who  buy  them  on  the  market  and 
treat  them  like  cattle;  but  these  concerns  are  few  and 
far  between,  because  it  does  not  pay  to  be  brutal  or 
unfair.  If  you  happen  to  be  connected  with  one  of  these, 
get  out;  but  be  mighty  sure  of  your  ground  before  you 
make  the  move.  Perhaps  you  imagine  faults  which 
do  not  exist. 

Remember  that  the  fellow  who  does  not  succeed  in  a 
small  job  never  makes  good  in  a  big  job.  Doers  of  big 
things  are  always  doers  of  small  things. 

No  matter  where  you  are,  do  your  best  for  your  own 
sake,  even  under  the  greatest  handicaps. 

If  the  man  you  work  for  represents  the  very  super- 
lative of  meanness  and  unfairness,  do  not  let  that  inter- 
fere with  your  own  actions.  You  are  primarily  working 
for  yourself,  and  you  cannot  throw  all  the  responsibility 
upon  your  employer.  Constant  dissatisfaction  and 
blaming  the  other  fellow  are  responsible  for  many  fail- 
ures. Do  not  allow  yourself  to  fool  yourself. 

Everywhere  there  is  drudgery,  and  the  blame  is  not 
located  on  either  side  exclusively.  It  is  hard  work 
behind  the  counter  and  everywhere  else.  Disappoint- 


THE  INSIDE  SALESMAN  53 

ments  are  of  hourly  occurrence.  You  must  meet  these 
obstacles  or  go  out  of  business.  Take  an  interest  in 
your  business  or  give  it  up. 

Perhaps  you  are  one  of  the  great  exceptions,  and  are 
working  in  a  bargain  basement,  with  a  brutal  man 
over  you,  and  a  hustling,  jostling,  cruel  mob  of  cus- 
tomers after  you.  You  are  naturally  tired,  worried, 
discouraged,  and,  perhaps,  sick.  Your  lot  is  a  hard 
one,  —  a  mighty  hard  one,  —  but  lack  of  interest  will 
not  help  you.  Nothing  in  the  world  makes  a  hard  job 
easier  than  to  become  interested  even  in  the  worst  side 
of  it. 

When  you  are  working  for  yourself,  are  faithful  to 
your  position,  are  doing  your  best  even  when  on  the 
rack  of  a  bargain  sale,  the  annoyances  are  not  half  so 
bad;  and  when  you  go  home,  tired  though  you  may  be, 
you  have  that  restful,  delightful  satisfaction  of  feeling 
that  you  are  true  to  yourself  and  true  to  your  duty; 
and  you  will  be  ten  times  happier  than  you  would  be 
if  you  met  unfairness  with  unfaithfulness  and  annoy- 
ances with  lack  of  interest. 

It  is  not  the  person  you  work  for  that  counts  the 
most.  It  is  your  work,  and  your  work  is  you. 

Above  all,  respect  yourself  and  your  position  as 
much  as  you  can,  for  it  is  you,  not  your  employer,  that 
you  are  working  for,  and  you  cannot  be  faithful  to 
him,  or  faithful  to  yourself,  or  true  to  the  better  things 
of  life,  unless  you  enter  your  work,  menial  though  it 
may  be,  with  a  respect  for  yourself  and  for  the  work  you 


54  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

do,  always  striving  to  do  your  best  and  with  interest 
always  alert,  for  these  things,  and  these  things  alone, 
will  give  you  peace  of  mind,  reasonable  happiness,  and 
place  you  on  the  road  to  promotion. 

You  cannot,  even  under  the  most  distressing  cir- 
cumstances, be  wholly  removed  from  opportunity,  from 
a  chance  to  better  yourself.  But  this  opportunity 
never  comes  to  those  not  seeking  for  it.  Promotion 
never  reaches  the  idler  behind  the  counter. 

If  you  do  your  best,  respecting  yourself  while  you 
do  it,  you  may,  and  probably  will,  better  yourself;  but 
if  you  do  not,  you  have  absolutely  no  chance  of  any 
kind  of  promotion. 

If  you  have  turned  the  half-hundred  year  mark,  and 
are  still  behind  the  counter  on  a  small  salary,  do  not 
brood  over  it;  do  not  limit  your  fault-finding  to 
the  man  you  work  for;  do  not  make  a  specialty  of 
dissatisfaction. 

The  man  who  cannot  get  something  out  of  anything 
—  even  the  farmer  on  the  rocky  farm,  who  cannot  coax 
unfertile  soil  to  yield  some  kind  of  a  harvest  —  is 
never  going  to  get  the  most  out  of  the  most  fertile 
ground  and  succeed  under  the  most  favorable  conditions. 

Make  the  most  of  the  job  you  have,  until  you  get  a 
better  one.  Never  find  fault  with  your  employer, 
without  first  examining  yourself,  that  you  may  deter- 
mine which  is  the  more  to  blame. 

Get  hold  of  yourself.  Remember  that  you  are 
working  for  yourself.  Change  your  tactics,  if  you  can. 


THE  INSIDE  SALESMAN  55 

Become  so  interested  in  your  business  that  you  will 
get  satisfaction  from  what  you  do,  no  matter  what  it  is. 
Look  upon  the  bright  side  of  things. 

Do  not  worry  about  the  mistakes  you  have  made, 
but  rather  think  about  correcting  them.  It  is  never  too 
late  to  learn,  and  never  too  late  to  receive  promotion. 
Make  everything  count,  from  the  small  things  to  the 
big  ones. 

The  fault-finder  is  usually  at  fault. 

The  ship  never  came  in  to  the  loafer  on  the  dock. 


THE  TRAVELING  SALESMAN 

PRACTICALLY  all  wholesale  houses,  jobbers,  and  dis- 
tributers of  every  class  of  merchandise  and  of  everything 
of  every  kind  for  sale,  and  manufacturers  of  everything 
which  is  sold,  employ  men  and  women,  usually  the 
former,  to  meet  their  trade  and  to  sell  goods  outside  of 
the  place  of  business.  These  sellers  are  known  as  drum- 
mers, traveling  salesmen,  or  traveling  saleswomen. 

Although  practically  every  seller  of  goods  to  the 
trade  employs  inside  salesmen,  from  seventy-five  to 
ninety  per  cent  of  all  sales,  barring  those  of  a  few  ex- 
ceptional houses,  are  consummated  outside  of  the  place 
of  business  and  through  the  intervention  of  the  travel- 
ing men,  who  sell  either  by  sample  or  by  description, 
and  most  of  them  carry  samples. 

Theoretically  the  traveling  salesman  is  not  a  busi- 
ness necessity,  for  it  would  seem  to  be  obvious  that  the 
retail  store-keeper,  and  other  purchaser  in  trade,  is, 
or  should  be,  a  trained  buyer,  who  knows  what  he 
wants  and  when  he  wants  it,  and  that  he  would  pur- 
chase anyway,  either  by  mail  or  by  visiting  the  manu- 
facturer or  wholesaler. 

But  practically  the  reverse  is  true,  comparatively 
few  goods  being  sold  by  the  impersonal  introduction  of 
samples  and  catalogues.  Conditions  rightly  or  wrongly 
require  the  presence  of  the  traveling  salesman  and  a 


THE  TRAVELING  SALESMAN  57 

superabundance  of  personal  solicitation.  While  this 
condition  exists,  and  no  change  is  in  sight,  the  traveling 
man  will  continue  to  be  a  business-getting  necessity. 

The  man  on  the  road  occupies  a  position  of  consider- 
able importance.  While  the  reputation  of  the  house  he 
represents,  and  the  quality  of  the  goods,  go  with  him, 
his  personality  and  ability  come  mightily  into  play, 
partly  because  he  is  representing  his  firm  outside  of  its 
place  of  business,  and,  in  most  cases,  he  is  the  only  one 
who  comes  in  contact  with  the  buyer. 

It  is  obviously  more  difficult  to  sell  goods  away  from 
the  store  or  factory  than  it  is  on  the  premises.  When 
trade  comes  to  you,  as  it  does  if  you  are  in  a  retail 
store  or  behind  the  counter,  the  customer  to  some  ex- 
tent takes  the  initiative.  At  any  rate,  his  presence 
indicates  that  he  is  in  a  buying  mood  and  is  more  likely 
to  order  something  than  not  to  at  all.  Under  these 
conditions,  a  certain  amount  of  trade  will  result  irre- 
spective of  the  ability  of  the  salesman  to  handle  the 
customer. 

On  the  road  it  is  different.  The  salesman  must  take 
the  initiative.  He  cannot  always  know  that  his  cus- 
tomer wants  to  buy  or  can  be  made  to  buy.  True,  he 
may,  in  some  cases,  make  an  appointment  in  advance 
of  calling,  but  even  then  he  is  on  the  initiative  side, 
and  it  requires  more  effort  to  take  the  initiative  than  it 
does  to  handle  what  comes  to  you. 

The  fact  that  one  salesman  can  do  a  large  business 
in  a  given  territory,  and  that  another  connected  with 


58  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

the  same  concern  cannot  profitably  handle  it,  the  buying 
conditions  remaining  the  same,  is  proof  positive  that  the 
ability  of  the  salesman  to  meet  conditions,  including 
opposition  and  competition,  is  a  large  factor  in  the 
consummation  of  trade. 

But  it  is  true,  nevertheless,  that  a  proportion,  if 
not  a  large  one,  of  failure  to  make  good  on  the  road 
occurs  because  the  salesman  does  not  use  more  than  a 
small  amount  of  his  natural  ability.  He  is  indifferent  or 
lazy.  He  does  not  post  himself  about  his  goods.  He 
does  not  try  to  familiarize  himself  with  the  character- 
istics of  his  customer  or  with  local  conditions. 

He  approaches  the  customer  hit  or  miss,  tells  his 
conventional  story,  and  sometimes  succeeds  when  he 
deserves  to  fail.  He  does  not  seem  to  care  so  long  as  he 
makes  a  few  sales,  yet  he  may  have  more  than  ordinary 
ability.  Probably  laziness,  pure  and  simple,  is  the  root 
of  much  of  the  trouble. 

Trying,  and  trying  hard,  will  lift  many  a  man  on  to 
a  plane  higher  than  he  supposed  he  could  occupy  when 
he  started  in  to  make  the  most  of  his  ambition. 

There  are,  of  course,  many  men  who  cannot  sell 
goods  on  the  road.  If  they  attempt  to  do  so,  they  fail, 
and  often  miserably  fail. 

Selling  ability,  especially  the  quality  which  makes 
good  on  the  road,  cannot  be  created.  If  one  has  posi- 
tive evidence  that  he  cannot  sell  goods  with  any  degree 
of  success,  he  certainly  should  not  make  the  attempt. 
If  he  is  already  on  the  road,  and  fails,  no  matter  how 


THE  TRAVELING  SALESMAN  59 

much  effort  he  makes,  and  cannot  seem  to  meet  con- 
ditions after  many  and  persistent  trials,  he  had  better 
consider  some  other  vocation. 

Nor  would  I  advise  one  to  become  a  traveling  sales- 
man who  thoroughly  dislikes  selling  or  is  not  self-pos- 
sessed. Some  folks  are  bora  scared,  and  try  as  they  do, 
they  are  too  easily  disconcerted  to  meet  the  vicissitudes 
which  daily  occur  on  the  road. 

The  majority  of  great  merchants  have  sold  goods  on 
the  road,  and  most  of  them  owe  their  present  positions 
to  their  ability  to  sell  under  difficulties  and  to  meet 
competition  face  to  face. 

But  selling  ability  alone  does  not  necessarily  make  a 
merchant. 

Some  good  salesmen  —  men  who  are  receiving  high 
salaries  —  cannot  command  salesmen.  They  are  able 
to  sell  goods  themselves,  but  do  not  know  how  to  direct 
others,  nor  do  they  seem  to  have  general  business 
ability.  They  remain  salesmen,  or  if  they  do  not,  they 
fail. 

The  handling  of  business  requires  a  different  kind  of 
ability  than  that  necessary  for  salesmanship  alone. 
Yet  the  ability  to  sell  goods  adds  greatly  to  the  making 
and  success  of  the  merchant;  in  fact,  comparatively 
few  men  become  great  merchants  unless  a  part  of  their 
experience  includes  the  selling  of  goods.  Proportionate 
figures  are  impossible,  but  I  think  that  I  may  venture 
the  statement  that  ninety  per  cent  of  our  most  success- 
ful merchants  were  at  one  time  expert  salesmen,  and 


60  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

that  seventy-five  per  cent  of  that  ninety  per  cent  were 
able  traveling  salesmen. 

An  important  part  of  business-doing  is  the  direction 
of  salesmen,  and  it  is  obvious  that  few  men  can  suc- 
cessfully direct  salesmen  unless  they  are  salesmen  or 
have  been.  In  the  first  place  it  is  extremely  difficult  to 
obtain  a  knowledge  of  salesmanship  without  actual 
experience,  and  if  one  does  not  have  it,  he  is  not  likely 
to  command  the  respect  of  those  under  him. 

Traveling  salesmen  are,  as  a  rule,  paid  higher  sal- 
aries than  those  received  by  inside  salesmen.  The 
majority  of  them  receive  a  specific  sum  per  week  or 
month,  and  are  allowed  a  reasonable  amount  for  trav- 
eling expenses,  which  is  supposed  to  cover  everything 
except  clothes  and  other  personal  items.  The  traveling 
salesman  has,  therefore,  little  board  to  pay.  This  is 
an  advantage,  if  the  man  is  without  family,  but  does 
not  count  for  so  much  to  the  married  man  with  a  family 
and  home. 

Some  salesmen  work  entirely  on  commission,  and 
pay  their  own  traveling  expenses;  but  the  majority 
receive  a  specified  salary  and  expenses. 

Occasionally  the  salesman  works  upon  both  a  salary 
and  commission,  or  upon  a  guarantee. 

It  does  not  make  much  difference,  because  no  sales- 
man will  hold  his  position  if  he  does  not  make  good, 
and  a  salary  amounts  to  about  the  same  as  a  commission, 
and  a  commission  to  about  the  same  as  a  salary,  except 
in  exceptional  cases. 


THE  TRAVELING  SALESMAN  61 

Probably  the  best  form  is  both  a  salary  and  a  com- 
mission, or  what  is  known  as  a  drawing  account  against 
a  commission,  it  being  understood  that  the  salesman 
may  receive  a  specific  amount  whether  or  not  his  com- 
missions meet  it.  This  gives  him  a  definite  sum  to 
rely  upon  so  long  as  his  sales  are  satisfactory.  If  they 
are  not,  he  will  lose  his  position  eventually. 

Life  on  the  road  is  hard,  except  to  the  few  who  seem 
to  enjoy  it.  Traveling  is  not  easy,  save  for  the  tourist 
and  pleasure  seeker.  The  novelty  soon  wears  off,  and 
all  hotels  look  alike  and  all  food  soon  tastes  the  same. 
Traveling  frequently  means  from  one  to  six  hotels  a 
week,  night  journeys,  indigestible  food,  long  hours,  and 
other  annoyances,  yet  the  man  with  the  right  stuff  in 
him  will  make  the  best  of  these  conditions,  and  they 
may  not  worry  him  if  he  attends  to  business. 

So  long  as  most  of  the  sales  are  made  on  the  road  and 
the  traveling  salesman  remains  a  necessity,  the  road 
will  offer  the  best  training  for  future  success  in  the 
wholesale  business,  and  the  experience  of  traveling  will 
continue  to  be  necessary  for  the  best  rounding-out  of 
profitable  selling  experience. 

The  traveling  man  has  one  advantage  over  the  inside 
salesman.  While  the  reputation  of  his  house  counts, 
his  customers  are  to  a  greater  extent  his  own,  and  he 
may  have  better  opportunity  to  prove  his  worth  to  the 
concern  he  works  for.  This  means  promotion,  and 
may  lead  to  partnership. 

I  am  not  depreciating  the  advantages  of  inside  sales- 


62  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

manship,  because  the  inside  man  has  more  opportunities 
than  he  is  supposed  to  possess. 

I  have  attempted  to  treat  the  other  side,  —  the  retail 
salesman's  side,  —  in  a  chapter  by  itself,  and  to  bring 
out  the  advantages  and  opportunities  which  accrue  to 
him.  The  positions  are  different,  yet  great  men  have 
sprung  from  both  of  these  departments  of  salesmanship. 
It  is  quite  difficult  to  compare  these  two  great  classes, 
and  the  casual  reader  may  feel  that  the  two  chapters 
are  somewhat  contradictory.  Perhaps  they  are  in 
spots,  for  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  be  absolutely  fair 
when  one  is  handling  a  difference  depending  so  much 
upon  similar,  yet  dissimilar,  conditions,  and  when  so 
much  is  dependent  upon  personality,  individuality,  and 
capacity. 

If  one  has  much  selling  ability,  and  enjoys  good 
health,  I  would  advise  him  to  consider  selling  on  the 
road,  provided  he  has  reason  to  feel  that  he  will  not  be 
obliged  to  remain  there  forever.  Every  man  has  a  right 
to  a  family  and  to  home  life.  This  he  cannot  have  more 
than  nominally  if  he  remains  a  traveling  salesman. 
True,  he  can  be  married  and  have  children;  but  if  he  is 
away  most  of  the  time,  he  cannot  feel  that  he  has  a 
local  habitation  and  a  name,  and  he  will  be  unhappy 
unless  he  is  of  Bohemian  spirit,  in  which  case  he  should 
not  have  a  family  at  home  or  abroad. 

In  these  days  of  severe  competition  and  the  central- 
ization of  capital,  it  is  not  easy  to  obtain  a  partnership 
or  to  become  more  than  a  subordinate  official.  There- 


THE  TRAVELING  SALESMAN  63 

fore,  the  man  on  the  road,  if  successful,  may  sometimes 
find  it  difficult  to  get  away  from  it  or  to  obtain  so  good 
a  position  at  the  home  office. 

The  opportunities  for  partnership,  and  for  residential 
positions,  may  not  be  as  good  as  they  used  to  be.  The 
strenuosity  of  business,  growing  greater  every  day, 
requires  that  many  of  the  best  men  remain  on  the  firing 
line.  But  this  condition  should  not  deter  one  from 
going  on  the  road,  if  he  is  ambitious,  for  he  may  have 
a  much  better  opportunity  of  eventually  obtaining  a 
good  residential  position,  if  he  goes  there  and  makes 
good,  than  if  he  only  realizes  an  indifferent  success 
inside  the  store  or  office.  I  am  referring  here  to  whole- 
sale houses  and  not  to  retail  establishments. 

Under  present  conditions  the  experiences  of  the 
traveling  salesman  seem  to  be  essential  to  the  train- 
ing for  success  in  the  active  side  of  the  wholesale 
business,  notwithstanding  that  not  a  few  men  have 
risen  to  the  top  who  have  never  sold  goods  outside 
of  the  store.  One  of  my  best  friends  —  a  leader  in 
his  line  —  has  never  been  on  the  road,  and  does  not 
recall  that  he  ever  sold  a  bill  of  goods  inside  the  store 
or  out  of  it,  yet  he  is  a  marvel  at  directing  salesmen. 
He  is  an  exception,  that  is  all.  But  think  of  what  he 
probably  would  have  accomplished  had  he  had  selling 
experience! 

It  is  a  common  belief  among  some  people  that  the 
traveling  salesman  is  simply  a  drummer  and  little 
more,  that  his  experience  and  knowledge  are  limited 


64  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

largely  to  the  purely  selling  side  of  business,  and  that 
he  cares  for  and  practices  little  else.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  first-class  traveling  salesman  is  a  represent- 
ative of  broad  business  ethics,  and  is  usually  familiar 
with  business  in  general,  although  he  practices  selling 
almost  exclusively. 

Unless  he  is  a  drone,  in  which  case  he  is  not  likely 
to  remain  on  the  road,  he  has  an  exceptional  oppor- 
tunity to  come  in  close  contact  with  every  phase  of 
business  life.  Every  day,  and  sometimes  every  hour, 
he  meets  different  kinds  of  men.  He  is  traveling  from 
house  to  house,  and  from  town  to  town,  and  he  cannot 
avoid  becoming  familiar,  not  only  with  men,  but  with 
local  conditions.  He  may  not  be  book-learned,  but 
he  cannot  help  being  world-learned. 

I  think  there  is  more  diversity  of  characteristics  in 
traveling  men  than  in  any  other  class  of  business- 
doers;  yes,  or  any  other  class  of  men  not  excepting 
those  in  the  professions.  To  succeed  they  have  to  be 
alert  and  up-to-the-times,  really  up-to-the-minute. 

Folks  in  general,  and  even  some  of  the  craft  them- 
selves, are  laboring  under  the  delusion  that  every 
traveling  man,  in  method  and  in  practice,  is  not 
unlike  his  fellows.  While  successful  drummers  prac- 
tice good  selling  principles,  comparatively  few  of  them 
are  exactly  alike  in  method,  each  one  having  his  own 
ideas  and  following  them,  provided  they  do  not  out- 
rage accepted  principles. 

I  have  in  mind  four  very  proficient  sellers  of  goods 


THE  TRAVELING  SALESMAN  65 

on  the  road,  and  they  illustrate  the  tremendous  differ- 
ence between  traveling  men. 

The  first  is  the  personification  of  dignity,  seldom 
utters  more  than  a  short  sentence  at  a  time,  has  little 
sense  of  humor,  never  attempts  to  crack  a  joke,  and 
has  hardly  a  perceptible  smile  for  any  witticism,  light 
talk,  or  humorous  story.  He  is  not  particularly  pre- 
possessing, and  his  personality  is  not  striking;  yet 
he  was,  perhaps,  the  best  salesman  of  his  class  on  the 
road,  and  possessed  so  much  business  ability  that  he 
was  taken  into  the  firm  at  an  early  age. 

The  second  salesman  I  have  in  mind  is  one  of  the 
j oiliest  and  wittiest  fellows  I  have  ever  met.  He  wears 
a  perpetual  smile.  He  laughs  and  jokes  with  his  cus- 
tomers, and  has  a  round  of  stories  which  seems  to 
cover  the  whole  wit  and  humpr  of  the  world.  When 
selling  goods,  he  intersperses  his  arguments  with 
witticisms,  —  always  good  and  clean  ones.  Buyers 
look  forward,  as  a  rule,  with  pleasure  to  his  coming. 
He  sells  goods,  and  I  have  heard  it  said  that  he  sold 
more  than  any  other  in  his  line. 

I  recall  the  third  salesman,  who  combines  dignity 
with  wit  and  good-fellowship.  He  is  a  great  success. 

The  fourth  example  is  a  man  who  fairly  radiates 
self-conceit,  and  is  positively  objectionable  to  his 
customers;  yet  by  sheer  persistency  and  a  full  knowl- 
edge of  his  product  he  has  achieved  remarkable  suc- 
cess. Of  course,  he  is  an  exception.  If  he  were  genial, 
he  would  do  double  the  business. 


66  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

In  the  ranks  of  traveling  men  are  classical  scholars, 
socialists,  and  men  of  deep  learning;  and  these  attain- 
ments do  not  seem  to  interfere  with  their  work. 

Perhaps  one  reason  why  these  men  succeed  is  be- 
cause they  are  natural,  they  act  themselves,  they 
present  what  they  have  in  their  own  way;  but  I  would 
not  advise  any  young  salesman  to  copy  their  methods 
unless  he  is  the  same  kind  of  a  man,  nor  would  I  suggest 
that  a  naturally  morose  man  carry  his  morbidness 
with  him  if  he  can  get  rid  of  it  or  cover  it  up.  But 
I  would  say  to  all  traveling  men,  that  as  they  cannot 
successfully  be  anything  but  what  they  are,  they  had 
better  be  as  they  are,  subject  to  proper  regulation, 
getting  rid,  if  possible,  of  the  objectionable,  and  inten- 
sifying the  good  that  is  in  them. 

When  you  go  on  the  road,  go  on  with  all  your  might. 
Make  up  your  mind  to  win,  to  be  so  engrossed  with 
your  business  that  the  annoyances  of  travel  will  count 
but  little  to  you.  You  have  a  fight  to  make,  and  your 
future  depends  upon  your  victories. 

Do  not  go  on  the  road  until  you  know  about  the 
house  you  work  for,  —  its  reputation,  its  position  in 
the  trade;  —  and,  further,  be  familiar  with  the  char- 
acter of  every  house  in  your  line.  You  must  know,  not 
only  about  the  goods  you  carry,  but  of  those  sold  by 
others.  Learn  about  your  goods  from  the  ground  up. 
Know  how  they  compare  with  other  similar  goods, 
and  be  familiar  with  the  policies  of  every  house  of 
your  kind. 


THE  TRAVELING  SALESMAN  67 

Do  not  fail  to  read  your  trade  paper  regularly. 
When  you  meet  other  salesmen,  swap  experiences 
with  them.  You  are  a  member  of  a  great  traveling 
school  of  business,  from  which  there  is  no  graduation, 
for  you  study  on  forever. 

Be  so  familiar  with  your  goods  that  you  can  advise 
the  customer.  Be  so  genial  and  generous  that  he  will 
be  glad  to  see  you.  The  chances  are  that  you  will 
carry  nothing  better  than  what  others  do,  and  that 
the  prices  will  be  about  the  same.  Your  success  de- 
pends upon  your  personality,  your  ability  to  satisfy 
your  customer,  not  only  with  the  goods  you  sell,  but 
with  yourself. 

On  one  side  is  the  house  you  represent,  on  the 
other  the  one  you  sell  to.  Unless  you  are  honest  and 
friendly  with  both,  and  faithful  to  both,  —  unless 
every  trade  you  make  is  of  mutual  advantage  to  you 
and  to  the  buyer,  —  you  are  not  a  continuous  success. 

Respect  yourself,  and  be  proud  of  your  firm.  If 
you  cannot  be,  get  out.  Feel  that  your  position  is 
second  to  none,  or  will  lead  to  it;  that  you  are  the 
firm  itself;  and  that  everything  you  do  reflects  upon 
it  as  well  as  upon  you. 

It  is  your  duty,  not  only  to  sell  goods,  but  to  aid 
the  firm  you  work  for  with  advice  and  suggestions. 
You  meet  the  trade  face  to  face,  while  the  heads  of 
your  house  see  it  by  mail  or  through  their  salesmen. 
Keep  your  firm  posted  on  selling  conditions.  Be  a 
scout  as  well  as  a  seller  of  goods.  Feel  that  you  are  a 


68  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

part  of  the  firm,  not  a  mere  representative  of  it;  that 
the  firm's  success  depends  as  much  upon  you  as  your 
success  depends  upon  it. 

While  away  from  your  house,  you  are  to  the  buyer 
the  firm  itself,  the  man  most  in  evidence;  and  the 
more  that  you  feel  this  responsibility,  the  more  that 
you  realize  that  you  are  working  for  yourself  as  well 
as  for  your  firm,  the  more  goods  you  will  sell  and  the 
quicker  you  will  rise  from  the  ranks  of  the  commanded 
into  a  commanding  position. 

While  on  the  road,  you  will  have  some  time  to  your- 
self, evenings  for  the  most  part,  and  during  this  off- 
time  you  will  be  by  yourself  or  can  be  if  you  choose. 
Most  certainly  I  would  not  advise  a  man  to  become 
a  hermit  on  the  road,  to  go  to  his  room  and  stay  there 
between  his  selling  efforts.  All  of  us  need  social  inter- 
course and  some  amusement  and  entertainment. 
Contact  with  other  salesmen  is  necessary  for  social 
enjoyment  and  is  a  profitable  proposition.  Without 
effort  one  can  in  conversation  swap  experiences  of 
great  selling  value. 

But  do  not  spend  all  of  your  time  talking  or  in  any 
one  form  of  amusement.  Take  up  systematic  reading, 
always  along  the  line  of  your  choice,  provided  it  is 
elevating. 

(See  the  chapters  "What  to  Read"  and  "What  to 
Do  Outside  of  Business.") 

Just  a  word  to  the  home-folks  and  to  parents  in 
general:  Some  good  people  object  to  sending  their 


THE  TRAVELING  SALESMAN  69 

boys  on  the  road  because  of  the  real  or  imaginary 
temptations  which  are  said  to  surround  every  one 
away  from  home. 

Undoubtedly  there  are  temptations,  and  every  sales- 
man is  subjected  to  them,  but  the  fellow  who  has  not 
strength  enough  to  resist  temptation  away  from  home 
is  not  likely  to  keep  straight  at  home.  The  weakling 
is  sure  to  fail  morally,  anyway,  and  the  slightest 
temptation  throws  him  down. 

Temptation  was  put  into  this  world  for  a  purpose, 
—  to  be  overcome  and  mastered.  The  bad  man  on 
the  road  would  probably  have  been  a  bad  man  at 
home.  Temptation  is  not  limited  to  traveling. 

No  one  should  refuse  to  go  on  the  road  because  of 
the  temptations  which  will  surround  him.  If  he  has 
the  right  stuff  in  him,  he  will  come  out  ahead.  If  he 
has  not,  he  will  go  under,  maybe  quicker  on  the  road 
than  at  home;  but  if  one  is  going  to  be  a  moral  wreck 
anyway,  perhaps  the  quicker  he  goes  to  pieces  the 
better. 

Temptation  is  a  stone  in  the  pavement  of  the  road 
to  success.  If  it  were  not  there,  we  should  coast 
through  life,  and  few  of  us  would  take  the  pains  to 
learn  to  walk. 


SATISFYING  THE  CUSTOMER 

THERE  are  two  factors  accompanying  every  trade 
of  every  kind.  On  the  one  side  is  the  seller,  who  is 
more  anxious  to  sell  than  the  buyer  is  to  buy.  At  any 
rate,  the  salesman  must  assume  this  position.  Natur- 
ally he  wants  to  make  the  sale  as  profitable  as 
possible  for  himself  if  he  be  the  principal,  and  for  his 
employer  if  he  be  the  employee. 

Probably  in  some  cases  he  would  ask  more  than  a 
fair  price,  if  he  thought  he  could  obtain  it,  although 
this  would  be  bad  policy  in  the  end,  for  the  unwritten 
law  of  custom,  more  or  less  affiliated  with  equity, 
right,  and  justice,  does  not  permit  a  continuous  out- 
rage of  its  principles,  and  will  not  watch  over  and 
protect  indefinitely  the  house  which  insists  upon 
receiving  a  more  than  reasonable  profit. 

The  truth  of  the  foregoing  statement  may  be  ques- 
tioned by  those  who  are  suffering  under  the  present 
high  cost  of  living  and  who  believe  that  the  prices 
asked  are  exorbitant. 

My  sympathy  is  with  these  people,  because  I  am 
well  aware  that  some  trusts  and  combinations  are 
demanding  and  receiving  more  than  a  fair  profit. 
But  the  reaction  is  setting  in,  and  it  is  only  a  ques- 
tion of  time  before  civilization  will  reach  a  plane  high 


SATISFYING  THE  CUSTOMER  71 

enough  to  control,  or,  at  least,  regulate,  the  cost  or 
price  of  necessities.  But  the  majority  of  articles  sold 
are  placed  upon  the  market  at  a  fair  price,  and  do  not 
pay  the  seller  an  exorbitant  profit. 

On  the  other  side  is  the  customer,  who  may  or  may 
not  need  the  goods,  and  who  can  get,  in  most  cases, 
the  same  thing,  or  something  as  good  or  similar,  at 
the  same  price,  of  somebody  else.  He  is  not  dependent, 
as  a  rule,  upon  any  one  store  or  firm  or  upon  any  one 
salesman.  He  is  not,  or  does  not  appear  to  be,  as 
anxious  to  buy  as  is  the  seller  anxious  to  sell.  He  is, 
to  an  extent,  an  autocrat.  He  has  a  right,  or  exercises 
what  he  considers  a  right,  to  object  to  the  price  and 
to  the  quality.  He  makes  as  strenuous  an  effort  to 
keep  prices  down  as  does  the  seller  to  keep  prices  up. 
He  may  be  as  unfair  as  the  most  unfair  maker  or  seller 
of  goods. 

Here  are  two  opposing  forces,  both  likely  to  be  un- 
reasonable at  times,  and  both  willing  to  some  extent 
to  get  the  better  of  the  other,  neither  always  realizing 
that  good  business  cannot  exist  except  where  the  trade 
is  a  mutual  exchange,  of  as  much  benefit  to  one  as  to 
the  other. 

Whether  or  not  it  is  right  or  wrong  to  ask  more 
than  the  goods  are  worth  has  not  yet  become  a  busi- 
ness ethic,  and  it  will  be  some  time  before  all  business 
will  be  conducted  along  purely  ethical  lines  and  con- 
trolled by  moral  as  well  as  by  legal  laws.  For  awhile 
some  sellers  will  attempt  to  get  all  they  can,  and  an 


72  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

equal  number  of  buyers  will  make  as  great  an  effort 
to  purchase  below  a  fair  price.  The  principal  differ- 
ence is  that  the  seller  wants  to  receive  more  than  his 
goods  are  worth,  and  the  buyer  wants  to  get  more 
than  his  money's  worth.  The  salesman  is  between 
these  two  factors,  each  more  or  less  unreasonable, 
each  sometimes  demanding  more  than  its  due,  and 
the  salesman  must  satisfy  both  or  go  out  of  business. 
In  justice  to  his  employer  he  must  obtain  the  price 
decided  upon,  and  convince  the  buyer  that  it  is  right. 
He  must  take  the  quality,  character,  and  price  of  the 
goods  given  him  and  make  the  sale,  usually  against 
competition,  both  fair  and  unfair.  He  must  follow 
the  policy  of  the  house  he  works  for  or  sever  his  con- 
nection with  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  continuous  success  is  impossible 
if  he  does  not  consider  the  customer,  for  it  is  just  as 
important  to  please  one  as  the  other,  as  sales  cannot 
continue  to  be  made  unless  both  sides  are  satisfied. 

Any  misrepresentation,  which  is  to  the  disadvantage 
of  the  customer,  will  sooner  or  later  react  on  the 
salesman  and  the  house  he  works  for.  Regular  cus- 
tomers are  not  fools.  Unless  they  are  usually  satis- 
fied, they  will  discontinue  doing  business  with  the 
salesman  and  his  house. 

The  salesman  must  not  only  satisfy  the  customer 
in  the  quality  of  the  goods  and  the  price,  but  he  must 
be  satisfactory  as  a  salesman;  in  fact,  this  personal 
equation  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  particularly 


SATISFYING  THE  CUSTOMER  73 

when  selling  goods  in  open  competition  where  the 
only  difference  appears  to  be  in  the  personality  of  the 
salesman. 

The  customer  should  be  glad  to  see  the  salesman, 
and  like  to  do  business  with  him,  otherwise  some 
other  house  may  get  the  business. 

The  policy  of  the  selling  house  may  not  appeal 
favorably  to  the  buyer.  It  then  becomes  necessary 
for  the  salesman  to  reconcile  the  buyer  to  that  policy, 
and  to  do  this  he  must  bring  into  play  all  of  his  per- 
sonality and  the  good-will  of  his  character.  He  can- 
not change  the  policy,  but  he  must  be  able  to  change 
the  customer's  opinion,  or  to  so  ingratiate  himself  with 
the  customer  that  he  will  not  rebel  against  what  he 
would  not  put  up  with  if  he  did  not  like  the  salesman. 

The  successful  salesman  studies  the  likes  and  dis- 
likes, the  characteristics  and  eccentricities,  of  his 
customer,  that  he  may  not  antagonize  him,  and  that 
he  may  the  better  satisfy  him.  Unless  he  can  make 
his  customer  glad  to  see  him,  inspire  confidence  in 
him,  and,  in  the  long  run,  be  of  actual  benefit  to  him, 
either  in  a  business  or  a  personal  way,  or  in  both,  he 
will  do  little  selling. 

The  fact  that  from  fifty  to  eighty-five  per  cent  of 
all  goods  are  sold  through  the  intervention  of  the 
salesman,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  most  everything 
is  in  duplicate,  including  prices,  indicates  that  there 
is  something  besides  quality  of  goods  and  price  neces- 
sary for  the  consummation  of  trade. 


74  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

This  something  is  vested  in  the  salesman,  —  the 
ability  to  give  something  besides  the  goods  and  the 
price.  He  must  create  a  business  friendship,  if  one  of 
no  other  kind,  and  this  is  where  his  personality  comes 
in,  his  general  knowledge  of  men  and  things,  his 
geniality,  his  courtesy,  and  his  ability  to  size-up  the 
customer. 

If  he  is  continually  thinking  of  the  policy  of  his 
business,  and  of  exclusive  faithfulness  to  his  employer, 
to  the  detriment  of  his  customer's  interest,  he  will 
fail.  And  he  will  make  as  great  mistake  if  he  for- 
gets his  employer's  interest  for  the  benefit  of  the 
customer. 

To  succeed,  he  must  represent  both  sides,  his  em- 
ployer's first  and  to  the  greater  extent;  but  he  must 
not  be  forgetful  of  his  customer's  rights  and  interests. 
He  is  an  agent  of  both,  —  a  profitable  go-between. 

The  shrewd  and  designing  salesman  may  work  off 
undesirable  goods,  may  over-load  the  customer  to 
his  loss  and  to  the  transient  benefit  of  the  seller.  This 
may  give  present  profit,  but  is  suicidal  in  the  end.  It 
does  not  build  up  permanent  business.  It  never  pays 
to  over-load  a  customer,  —  to  make  him  buy  what  he 
cannot  dispose  of  or  use. 

The  over-loaded  customer  is  dissatisfied  with  him- 
self, with  the  man  who  sold  him  the  goods,  and  with 
the  goods  themselves;  and,  if  these  goods  have  been 
forced  upon  him,  he  is  rightly  prejudiced  against  the 
salesman  and  the  house  he  represents. 


SATISFYING  THE  CUSTOMER  75 

Some  salesmen  even  go  so  far  as  to  under-sell  rather 
than  over-sell.  They  think  that  the  customer  will  be 
better  satisfied  if  he  has  to  reorder  than  if  he  has 
a  few  of  the  goods  left  over. 

Many  a  salesman  has  advised  the  buyer  to  cut 
down  the  size  of  his  order,  where  there  is  sure  to  be  a 
sufficient  quantity  of  the  goods  on  hand  for  immediate 
delivery  when  wanted.  I  know  of  one  very  successful 
concern,  which  has  built  up  the  second  largest  busi- 
ness of  its  kind  in  the  country  on  the  policy  of  advising 
the  customer  to  buy  what  he  wants  when  he  wants  it, 
and  is  continuously  cautioning  him  against  over-stock- 
ing. This  house  invariably  satisfies  the  customer. 
It  will  not  sell  a  line  of  goods,  except  under  compul- 
sion, if  it  feels  that  the  buyer  cannot  use  them  to 
advantage. 

The  best  salesmen  —  the  salesmen  who  have  achieved 
fame  on  the  road  or  behind  the  counter  —  are  those 
who  never  sell  a  customer  what  they  believe  will  not 
be  to  his  advantage;  and  they  never  force  more  goods 
upon  him  than  they  believe  he  can  easily  dispose  of 
or  use.  By  always  feeling  and  showing  a  genuine 
interest,  the  customer  becomes  a  friend  as  well  as  a 
customer,  and  the  salesman  has  a  personal  influence 
over  him,  which  he  has  fairly  earned.  He  satisfies  the 
customer  in  quality  of  the  goods,  in  price,  in  the  sala- 
bility  of  the  goods,  and  in  his  own  personality.  He 
does  not  ask  him  to  buy  what  he  would  not  buy  of  the 
customer  if  they  exchanged  places. 


76  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

The  salesman  who  cannot  see  the  customer's  side, 
and  who  is  unable  to  work  in  the  mutual  interest  of 
the  buyer  and  seller,  is  not  a  real  salesman  and  cannot 
expect  to  succeed. 

The  salesman  is  the  solicitor  —  he  takes  the  initia- 
tive. It  is,  therefore,  his  duty  to  satisfy  the  customer. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  thoroughly  successful  buyer 
will  treat  the  salesman  with  the  same  courtesy  and 
consideration  that  he  expects  the  salesman  to  give  him. 
But  the  buyer  may,  to  some  extent,  do  as  he  pleases, 
and  yet  succeed;  while  the  salesman,  to  succeed,  must 
satisfy  the  customer,  whether  or  not  the  customer  is 
satisfactory  to  him,  and  he  must  cater  to  that  customer, 
help  him  and  guide  him,  and  subordinate  himself  to 
him  up  to  the  point  of  not  losing  his  self-respect. 

The  dissatisfied  customer  does  not  remain  a 
customer. 


APPROACHING  THE  CUSTOMER 

THE  intrinsic  value  of  proper  presentation  or  ap- 
proach cannot  be  over-estimated. 

A  prominent  real  estate  agent  once  said  to  me: 

"If  you  want  to  sell  a  house  to  advantage,  have  the 
approach  attractive,  and  the  front  hall  especially  so. 
This  condition,  properly  met,  gives  the  best  initiative 
impression." 

Theatrical  managers,  especially,  appreciate  this,  for 
theaters  have  most  attractive  entrances  and  their 
lobbies  are  well  furnished  and  inviting. 

First  impressions  are  of  major  importance.  They 
produce  a  feeling  of  good-will  and  cordiality  and  en- 
gender a  willingness  to  go  further,  to  make  inquiries 
or  an  examination. 

The  buyer,  who  is  met  .by  the  road  salesman,  may 
be  busy  or  irritable  and  have  a  tendency  to  turn  every- 
body down.  If  the  first  impression  or  the  approach  is 
pleasing  and  does  not  antagonize  him,  the  salesman  is 
given  an  opportunity  to  present  his  goods. 

The  same  condition  applies  to  the  man  behind  the 
counter.  The  customer  selects,  if  he  can  do  so  conven- 
iently, the  salesman  who  impresses  him  the  most.  He 
may  judge  superficially,  and  first  impressions  are  not 


78  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

always  based  upon  reason;  but  they  are  inevitable  and 
are  going  to  count  in  practically  every  case. 

It  is  difficult  to  always  make  a  good  impression,  or 
to  approach  the  customer  to  his  satisfaction,  for  no  one 
can  diagnose  every  one  correctly,  and  cannot  know  just 
how  to  act  at  the  start  every  time;  but  if  his  manner 
is  pleasing  a  part  of  the  battle  is  won. 

The  languid,  "don't-care"  look  behind  the  counter 
has  spoiled  many  a  trade  and  has  driven  many  a  cus- 
tomer to  another  salesman  or  to  another  store. 

The  salesman  should  always  wear  an  interested  and 
pleasing  look,  and  should  show  his  willingness  to  sell 
and  to  assist  the  customer.  This  look  and  manner 
must  be  cultivated,  if  it  is  not  natural;  and,  if  natural, 
developed. 

The  first  word,  or  the  first  few  words,  with  the  right 
facial  expression  accompanying  them,  may  be  respon- 
sible for  the  sale.  The  appearance  of  cordiality  at- 
tracts the  customer  and  puts  him  in  the  right  frame  of 
mind,  giving  the  salesman  opportunity  to  do  his  best 
and  to  accomplish  the  most. 

Perhaps  you  have  some  mannerism,  which  is  obnox- 
ious to  most  people,  and  if  you  have  it,  very  likely  you 
do  not  know  that  you  have  it.  Nothing  irritates  more 
than  some  mannerisms  do.  If  you  know  that  you  have 
one,  get  rid  of  it.  If  you  do  not  know,  inquire.  This 
point  should  especially  interest  the  traveling  salesman, 
for  he,  more  than  the  counter-man,  gets  close  to  his 
customer. 


APPROACHING  THE  CUSTOMER         79 

Be  alert.  Show  your  interest  in  your  face  and  man- 
ner. Let  the  customer  know  that  you  want  his  trade, 
not  by  appearing  over-anxious  for  it,  but  by  being 
thoroughly  interested  and  ready  to  meet  him  more 
than  halfway. 

The  appearance  of  too  much  cordiality  or  too  much 
persistency  may  be  injurious,  but  better  have  too  much 
of  either  or  both  than  too  little  of  them.  Better  be 
over-cordial  than  indifferent,  and  over-persistent  than 
the  opposite. 

Your  whole  personal  appearance  counts,  from  your 
necktie  to  your  shoes.  Your  voice  and  manner  are  parts 
of  salesmanship. 

If  you  are  behind  the  counter  and  have  no  customer, 
be  on  the  lookout  for  one.  Meet  him  with  your  eyes 
and  your  whole  manner,  and  when  he  approaches  you, 
be  so  cordial  and  so  interested  that  you  cannot  help 
making  a  good  impression. 

Do  not  hand  things  out,  show  them.  Do  not  turn 
your  face  away  from  the  customer.  Keep  face  to  face 
with  him  as  much  as  you  can.  Cultivate  the  smile  that 
stays  on;  but  do  not  grin  or  be  supercilious,  and  never 
patronizing. 

Be  independent  and  self-respecting,  but  do  not  forget 
the  customer  is  your  superior  for  the  time  being. 

If  you  do  not  know  how  to  properly  make  a  first  im- 
pression, watch  others;  watch  them,  anyway.  See  how 
successful  salesmen  do.  If  you  are  in  a  retail  store  and 
have  any  time  off,  get  close  to  successful  salesmen  as 


80  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

much  as  possible.  Watch  and  study  their  facial  ex- 
pressions, their  manners,  their  voices,  and  their 
methods. 

The  customer,  especially  the  retail  buyer,  is  a  sort 
of  will  o'  the  wisp.  He  goes  and  he  comes.  It  is  often 
necessary  to  nail  him  with  a  glance  and  hold  him  with  a 
word. 

As  the  first  impression  comes  first,  it  is  of  first  im- 
portance. It  is  the  gateway  to  success  in  selling.  Many 
a  man  of  little  selling  ability  has  done  well  because  of 
his  manner,  his  cordiality,  and  his  fervent  interest  in 
the  customer. 

It  may  be  hard  work  to  look  happy  and  to  dispense 
cordiality  when  your  liver  is  out  of  order  and  your 
customer  is  not  a  gentleman.  It  is  not  easy  to  sell 
goods  anyway,  and  I  know  of  no  easy  business  any- 
where. If  you  feel  all  right,  show  it  on  your  face  and 
in  your  manner.  If  you  do  not,  then  act  as  though 
everything  was  going  smoothly  with  you.  Your  cus- 
tomer cares  nothing  about  your  troubles,  and  you  have 
no  right  to  burden  him  with  them. 

The  control  of  yourself,  and  the  ability  to  radiate 
cordiality  and  good-will,  are  things  which  must  be 
cultivated  and  maintained,  if  one  would  succeed  at 
selling.  It  is  necessary  for  you  to  have  yourself  under 
such  control  that  you  can  immediately  bring  the  best 
of  you  into  your  face  and  manner,  that  you  may  make 
a  good  impression  at  the  start. 

But  do  not  forget  that  a  good  first  impression  is 


APPROACHING  THE  CUSTOMER         81 

worth  mighty  little  if  it  fades.  Good  first  impressions 
must  be  followed  by  good  second  impressions. 

First  sales  are  of  great  importance,  and  often  difficult 
to  obtain,  but  their  value  is  dependent  largely  upon 
their  continuance.  It  is  the  same  with  impressions. 

A  good  start  is  pretty  likely  to  lead  to  a  good  finish. 


FORCING  A  SALE 

FORCE,  or  coercion,  or  undue  or  over-pressure,  must 
never  be  exercised,  if  one  would  make  a  permanent 
customer,  except  when  the  customer  is  vacillating  or 
appears  to  be  unable  to  decide  for  himself.  But,  even 
then,  the  salesman  should  use  great  caution,  and  should 
not  apply  force  or  use  strenuous  methods,  if  they  will 
be  apparent  to  the  customer. 

The  salesman  who  earns  permanent  success  usually 
appears  to  be,  and  is,  working  in  the  interest  of  the 
customer  as  well  as  of  the  house  he  represents,  and  is 
impressing  upon  him  the  great  selling  fact  that  the 
principle  of  correct  business-doing  is  based  upon  reci- 
procity, —  a  desire  to  produce  a  mutual  benefit. 

Where  the  customer  is  vacillating,  does  not  seem  to 
have  a  mind  of  his  own,  and  shows  weakness  and  in- 
decision, the  salesman  may  be  justified  in  using  force, 
provided  the  customer  will  stand  for  it,  and  provided 
the  salesman  knows  how  to  properly  use  it  and  to  so 
disguise  it  that  to  the  customer  it  appears  to  be  earnest- 
ness rather  than  force,  and  friendly  advice  rather  than 
coercion. 

Many  young  salesmen,  anxious  to  make  a  sale, 
crowd  the  customer;  and,  although  they  may  succeed 


FORCING  A  SALE  83 

at  times,  they  are  not  likely  to  leave  a  good  impression, 
and  this  operates  against  them,  perhaps  for  years  to 
come. 

Do  not  misunderstand  me,  and  do  not  think  that  I 
am  opposed  to  strenuous  methods,  or  a  display  of 
earnestness,  even  if  they  approach  vehemency,  be- 
cause they  are  often  necessary.  But  I  would  emphat- 
ically advise  the  salesman  against  crowding  or  driving 
the  customer,  against  forcing  him  to  do  what  he  is 
sure  to  be  sorry  for  afterwards.  A  forced  sale,  or  a 
sale  against  the  interest  of  the  customer,  even  though 
the  method  used  may  not  antagonize  him  at  the  time, 
is  sure  to  have  boomerangic  effect. 

The  salesman  must  not  only  make  a  good  first  im- 
pression, but  he  must  so  handle  the  customer,  and  so 
sell  him,  that  the  favorable  impression  given  will 
remain.  Unless  the  trade  satisfies  the  customer  after 
the  goods  are  delivered,  the  hard  work  done  by  the 
salesman  is  likely  to  be  lost  so  far  as  subsequent  sales 
are  concerned. 

The  refusal  to  crowd,  force,  or  coerce,  in  no  way 
interferes  with  persistency  and  positiveness,  both  of 
which  are  necessary  to  the  consummation  of  most 
sales,  for  the  customer  expects  the  salesman  to  be  both 
persistent  and  positive  and  has  little  respect  for  the 
salesman  who  is  not.  But  no  customer  worth  having 
will  stand  crowding  or  coercion  more  than  once,  and 
may  refuse  to  see  the  salesman  when  he  calls  the  second 
time. 


84  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

These  principles  apply  to  retail  selling  as  well  as  to 
selling  on  the  road. 

Even  the  supercilious,  vacillating,  namby-pamby, 
retail  buyer  likes  to  feel  that  the  goods  were  not  forced 
upon  him. 

Once  in  a  while  force  may  be  necessary,  but  when  it 
is  used  it  should  be  so  covered  up  that  it  will  not  be 
recognized  by  the  customer. 

Assisting  the  customer,  suggesting  to  him,  helping 
him  to  make  up  his  mind,  is  not  in  any  sense  forcing 
the  customer.  Many  a  buyer,  especially  one  before  the 
counter,  does  not  know  what  he  wants,  and  no  sale  is 
possible  unless  the  salesman  helps  him  out  by  advice 
and  suggestion.  To  do  this  does  not  require  any  form 
of  coercion,  for  it  should  be  given  in  a  friendly,  interested 
way,  so  put  that  the  customer  will  be  really  thankful 
for  it,  and  go  away  without  any  feeling  that  the  goods 
have  been  forced  upon  him. 


EMPLOYER  AND  EMPLOYEE 

THE  doing  of  all  business,  and  the  management  and 
action  of  all  commercial  affairs,  from  making  the  goods 
to  the  selling  of  them,  require  the  services  of  two  classes 
of  workers,  —  the  employer  who  during  working  hours 
is  in  command  of  the  employee,  and  the  employee  who 
during  the  same  time  is  under  the  direction  of  the 
employer. 

This  condition  will  exist  as  long  as  there  is  necessity 
for  business  accomplishment.  Somebody  must  direct, 
and  others  must  follow  directions.  Without  the  leader 
and  the  led,  all  work  would  be  that  of  the  mob,  —  dis- 
connected, useless,  and  undistributed. 

Quite  naturally  the  unperfected  state  of  business, 
and  of  all  other  present  action,  creates  and  maintains 
abuses.  The  employer  is  not  always  fair,  nor  is  the 
employee.  Often  they  are,  without  justification, 
antagonistical  to  each  other,  many  an  employer  de- 
manding more  work  than  he  pays  for,  and  many  an 
employee  being  unwilling  to  earn  his  pay. 

This  condition  is  due  to  our  lack  of  development, 
which  will  continue  to  breed  unfairness,  extortion, 
laziness,  and  even  cruelty. 

I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  capital  and  labor,  nor  to 
dwell  upon  the  abuses  practiced  by  some  employers 
and  the  unfairness  of  the  business  men  who  seem  to 


86  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

feel  that  they,  as  hirers  of  labor,  are  made  of  different 
stuff  and  feed  upon  different  meat,  when,  perhaps,  at 
the  start,  they  were  lower  mentally  and  financially  than 
some  of  the  poor  fellows  who  are  unfortunate  enough 
to  work  for  them. 

Until  the  Golden  Rule  becomes  a  part  of  our  code 
of  law,  a  proportion  of  employers  will  be  unfair  and 
unkind  and  even  cruel  to  their  employees,  and  will  see 
things  only  through  their  own  glasses,  with  charity 
towards  none. 

Unfortunate,  indeed,  is  the  worker  who  finds  himself 
under  the  lash  of  these  men.  The  only  thing  that  he 
can  do  is  to  get  out  at  the  earliest  possible  moment. 

I  am  addressing  my  remarks  to  the  salesman's  side 
of  the  question. 

It  is  the  employee's  duty  to  do  his  work  in  a  business- 
like way,  to  be  honest  and  square,  faithful  and  reliable, 
whether  his  employer  be  a  good  man  or  a  bad  man,  a 
fair  master  or  a  tyrant.  The  employee  is  working  for 
himself,  no  matter  how  low  down  he  may  be.  It  is  his 
duty  to  be  true  to  himself,  and  he  cannot  be  if  he  is 
unfaithful  to  the  man  he  works  for. 

All  of  us  began  in  the  ranks,  and  our  promotion  is 
dependent  upon  the  services  we  render,  —  our  faith- 
fulness, our  obedience,  and  the  development  of  our 
ability. 

A  large  part  of  so-called  unfairness  on  the  part  of 
the  employer,  and  much  of  the  cause  of  dissatisfaction, 
are  imaginary.  The  employer  in  his  unfinished  state, 


EMPLOYER  AND  EMPLOYEE  87 

for  none  of  us  are  fully  developed,  sees  the  world  from 
his  personal  viewpoint,  and,  unfortunately,  not  always 
from  that  of  the  employee.  He  should  be  fairer  be- 
cause he  began  as  an  employee,  and  has  had  better  op- 
portunity to  see  both  sides;  while  the  employee,  on  the 
other  hand,  cannot  very  well  view  conditions  except 
from  his  own  standpoint.  He  has  not  as  yet  become  an 
employer.  Therefore  he  may  be  unreasonable  through 
ignorance  and  inexperience,  and  it  is  quite  likely  that 
he  will  often  imagine  abuses  which  do  not  exist. 

Discipline  is  necessary  for  any  action,  and  it  may 
appear  to  the  disciplined  to  be  unfair  and  unjust,  be- 
cause those  in  the  ranks  have  not  as  wide  a  circle  of 
experience. 

The  captain  of  an  army  or  the  manager  of  the  busi- 
ness is  carrying  out  a  policy,  which,  to  be  properly 
met,  must  employ  certain  rules  and  regulations,  and 
which  does  not  always  allow  him  to  discriminate  with 
absolute  equity.  He  may  be  unfair  without  knowing 
it.  He  has  under  him  a  number  of  men,  some  of  them 
honest  and  some  the  opposite,  some  active  and  some 
lazy,  some  satisfied  and  some  dissatisfied,  some  fair 
and  some  unfair.  To  an  extent  he  has  to  handle  them 
at  arm's  length.  He  cannot  take  all  of  them  into  his 
private  confidence.  He  has  not  the  time,  and  may  not 
have  the  inclination,  to  get  as  close  to  them  as  he  should. 
He  places  them  under  discipline,  some  of  it  more  or  less 
automatic  and  arbitrary,  because  there  appears  to  be 
no  other  way. 


88  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

Undeveloped  man,  and  none  of  us  are  close  to 
the  point  of  perfection,  cannot  dispense  discipline  as 
his  better  nature  would  suggest  if  it  had  a  better 
opportunity. 

The  majority  of  employers  intend  to  be  fair,  are  con- 
siderate, and  appreciate  the  work  of  their  employees. 
They  are  so,  partly  because  their  good  nature  predomi- 
nates, and  because  it  is  good  business  policy  to  be. 

The  employer  is  as  much  dependent  upon  the  em- 
ployee, collectively,  as  the  employee  is  dependent,  in- 
dividually, upon  the  employer.  But  here  is  a  differ- 
ence, which  many  of  us  do  not  take  into  consideration: 
The  relation  of  the  employer  to  the  employee  is  collec- 
tive, or  in  mass,  so  to  speak,  except  where  there  are 
few  employees;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  feeling  of 
the  employee  towards  his  employer  is  individual  or 
personal. 

This  condition  is  responsible  for  much  of  the  existing 
trouble,  —  the  employer  sometimes  looking  upon  the 
employee  as  a  machine,  and  the  employee  demanding, 
at  times,  more  personal  recognition  than  the  employer 
can  possibly  give  if  he  would  handle  his  business  as 
business  has,  unfortunately,  to  be  conducted. 

The  good  and  successful  employee  or  salesman  at- 
tends to  his  side  of  the  business,  and  does  not  continu- 
ally find  fault  with  the  man  he  works  for,  whether  or 
not  cause  exists.  He  is  gunning  for  business,  and  not 
hunting  for  trouble.  He  does  his  work  faithfully  and 
cheerfully,  renders  the  best  possible  service,  and  accom- 


EMPLOYER  AND  EMPLOYEE  8C 

plishes  something  in  the  end  that  must  command  the 
respect  of  any  employer  who  is  twenty-five  per  cent 
man. 

If  conditions  are  unbearable,  he  throws  up  his  posi- 
tion, but  only  after  deep  and  long  consideration.  He 
realizes  that  his  employer  has  troubles  and  annoyances 
which  no  employee  has  to  bear. 

The  employer  carries  the  weight  of  the  load.  Business 
is  hard.  Profits  may  come  slowly.  There  may  be  fre- 
quent losses.  He  may  have  to  force  himself  against  the 
current  and  may  be  among  the  rocks.  He  may  have 
more  money  and  great  luxuries,  but  these  come  often 
from  over-work  and  continuous  worry. 

Some  men  prefer  to  remain  employees,  and  are  better 
satisfied  with  good  salaries  and  the  minimum  of  worry 
than  with  commanding  positions  and  the  maximum  of 
anxiety. 

I  am  about  to  say  something  which  may  be  mis- 
understood: No  one  believes  in  the  equality  of  man 
more  than  I  do.  The  man  who  does  his  best,  whether 
he  be  a  boot-black  or  the  president  of  a  corporation,  is, 
or  should  be,  recognized  to  be  the  business  and  social 
equal  of  any  other  man  or  of  any  body  of  men.  He 
who  does  all  he  can,  however  little  that  accomplish- 
ment may  be,  is  as  great  and  as  worthy  as  he  who  has 
conquered  half  of  the  world  and  expects  to  command  the 
rest  of  it.  No  man  can  do  more  than  his  best. 

The  doing  of  business  appears  to  be  necessary,  and 
to  be  a  part  of  our  education,  leading  to  better  things. 


90  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

At  any  rate,  business  is  going  to  exist  for  many  years 
to  come,  and  the  improvement  of  business  methods 
will  necessarily  be  slow.  For  the  present,  and  for 
some  time,  there  will  be  a  line  drawn  between  employer 
and  employee.  The  employer,  for  the  time  being  and 
during  business  hours  particularly,  occupies  a  position 
superior  to  that  of  the  employee.  He  may  be  mentally 
deficient  and  socially  beneath  some  of  those  who  work 
for  him.  He  may  have  less  intelligence  and  far  less 
education.  Some  of  his  employees  may  be  better  able 
to  command  than  he  is;  but,  so  long  as  he  is  in  at  the 
head,  he  must  be  obeyed;  and  the  employee,  like  the 
soldier  in  the  ranks,  who  refuses  to  follow  orders,  will 
never  reach  a  commanding  position. 

Few  men  ever  successfully  handled  a  sword  who  had 
not  as  successfully  carried  a  gun,  and  the  great  prin- 
ciples of  military  tactics  apply  with  equal  force  to  the 
action  of  business. 

If  you  would  look  forward  to  a  high  position,  if  you 
expect  the  management  of  salesmen,  if  you  would  be 
ambitious  and  anxious  to  become  a  member  of  the 
firm,  respect  your  employer  while  he  is  your  employer 
and  as  your  employer.  Obey  him  in  all  that  is  right. 
Look  up  to  him.  Honor  him.  Even  admire  him  and 
be  proud  of  him,  and  always  recognize  him  as  your 
superior  officer,  better  able  to  command  you  than  you 
are  to  command  him,  until  the  time  comes  that  you 
become  commercially  a  fellow  officer  with  him  or  his 
superior  officer. 


EMPLOYER  AND  EMPLOYEE  91 

So  long  as  you  sell  goods,  you  are  rightly  under  the 
direction  of  somebody,  who  for  the  present  is  your 
superior,  and  who  at  the  helm  is  better  able  to  lay  the 
course  than  are  you  who  have  never  seen  the  chart- 
room  and  who  are  before  the  mast  of  business. 

While  you  are  in  the  forecastle  of  salesmanship,  and 
have  not  become  a  ward-room  officer,  take  off  your  hat 
to  the  man  on  the  bridge  if  you  would  do  your  work 
better  and  gain  promotion  quicker. 

Do  not  allow  yourself  to  feel  antagonistical  toward 
the  man  you  work  for.  Do  not  question  his  policies 
and  his  methods,  unless  they  be  dishonest.  The  fact 
that  he  is  above  you  is  prima  fade  evidence  that  he 
knows  more  than  you  do,  has  had  more  experience, 
and  is  entitled  to  his  position.  The  better  you  work 
for  him,  the  better  you  work  for  yourself;  and  the  more 
you  appreciate  and  honor  the  position  you  occupy  as 
an  employee,  the  quicker  you  will  carry  the  sword  of 
business,  and  wear  the  sash  of  honor,  and  command  a 
company  of  workers. 


WORKING  FOR  YOURSELF 

EVERY  member  of  the  great  and  ever-increasing 
army  of  business,  and  every  one  connected  with  any 
kind  of  activity,  either  is  in  command  of  others  or  is 
under  the  command  of  others;  that  is  to  say,  he  is  in 
the  ranks,  subject  to  constant  orders,  or  he  is  in  front 
of  the  ranks  constantly  giving  orders. 

Yet  no  one,  not  even  the  commander-in-chief,  is 
wholly  in  charge  of  himself  or  of  anybody  else;  and 
no  one,  even  the  slave,  is  entirely  under  orders. 

The  great  commander,  although  his  power  may  seem 
to  be  as  broad  as  the  field  of  all  outdoors,  is  under 
some  sort  of  discipline.  He  is  subservient,  at  least,  to 
the  dictates  of  public  opinion  and  to  public  policy. 
Therefore  he  is  not,  and  never  can  be,  the  supreme 
authority. 

The  proprietor  of  the  great  department  store,  a 
massive  structure  housing  two  townfuls  of  workers, 
may  seem  to  handle  his  business  as  a  czar  and  to  be 
beyond  the  slightest  interference  from  others,  yet  he 
is  the  servant  of  his  customers,  is  controlled  by  the 
composite  policy  of  them,  and  is  never  thoroughly 
independent. 

The  great  banker,  who  seems  to  be  able  to  jingle 
in  his  hand  the  gold  of  his  country,  is  not  independent 
of  banking  interests,  and  is  controlled  by  written  and 


WORKING  FOR  YOURSELF  93 

unwritten  laws  made  and  enforced  by  the  composite 
body  of  which  he  is  a  part. 

We  are  all  dependent  upon  others  and  subservient 
to  conditions,  —  members  of  the  working  army  of 
activity. 

But,  broadly  speaking,  there  are  two  classes  of 
workers,  —  the  employer  and  the  employee,  —  one  in 
command  and  the  other  under  orders;  yet  no  one  in 
whose  veins  runs  a  drop  of  red  blood  is  wholly  sub- 
servient to  orders,  for  every  one  is  in  some  command 
of  himself,  whether  he  be  a  hod-carrier  or  the  con- 
troller of  a  railroad. 

It  is  impossible  to  render  efficient  service  unless 
the  doer  commands  himself  to  do  what  he  is  commanded 
by  others  to  do. 

The  salesman,  even  though  he  may  be  smarting 
under  the  discipline  of  the  firm  he  works  for  and  is 
under  rigid  rules  and  regulations,  does  not  and  can- 
not make  more  than  an  indifferent  success,  unless  he 
feels  that  he  is  working  for  himself  while  he  is  working 
for  another,  unless  he  appreciates  and  honors  his 
position,  and  feels  responsible  to  himself  for  the  work 
he  does. 

He  must  obey  orders  and  follow  the  policy  of  the 
house  he  works  for.  He  cannot  personally  settle  the 
great  questions  for  the  firm,  but  he  can  settle  great 
questions  for  himself  and  remain  in  command  of  him- 
self while  he  is  taking  and  following  orders  from  others. 

Unless  he  realizes  that  he  is  working  for  himself,  n: 


94  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

matter  how  menial  may  be  his  position  as  an  employee, 
he  will  never  produce  results  worth  while,  either  for 
himself  or  for  anybody  else. 

Do  not  think  that  I  am  asking  you  to  feel  so  impor- 
tant that  you  will  chafe  under  the  harness  of  disci- 
pline. So  long  as  the  world  lives  there  must  be 
commanders  and  commanded,  and  disobedience  to 
orders  invites  failure;  but  there  is  a  difference  be- 
tween being  a  bloodless  machine  or  a  mere  puppet 
pulled  by  the  invisible  string  of  a  regulator  and  the 
ability  to  respect  yourself  and  to  respectfully  follow 
the  direction  of  your  superior. 

The  successful  salesman  cheerfully  obeys  orders, 
honors  and  respects  his  commander;  yet,  at  the  same 
time,  he  considers  that  the  man  he  works  for  and  him- 
self combined  constitute  his  real  employer,  and  he  is 
never  forgetful  that  in  whatever  he  ,does,  whether  he 
follows  strict  orders  or  not,  he  is  first  responsible  to 
himself. 

If  he  is  not  working  for  himself,  he  is  not  working 
at  all,  except  as  an  automaton.  If  he  is  not  proprietor 
of  himself,  he  is  unworthy  of  the  bark  of  a  friendly 
dog.  If  he  does  not  appreciate  and  respect  himself, 
and  feel  his  personality  and  individuality,  it  is  be- 
cause he  does  not  have  any,  and  he  is  not,  and  cannot 
be,  a  salesman.  It  is  impossible  for  him  to  do  any 
effective  work  unless  he  is  a  partner  in  the  transaction. 
To  amount  to  anything  he  must  consider  himself  a 
member  of  the  firm.  The  more  he  feels  it,  and  the 


WORKING  FOR  YOURSELF  95 

more  he  acts  under  this  inspiration,  the  better  off 
are  his  partners,  his  employers. 

The  highest  self-respect  does  not  interfere  with 
discipline.  The  bravest  soldier  on  the  field  is  the 
one  who  respects  himself  so  much  that  he  can  respect 
his  commander,  and  he  obeys  orders,  not  wholly  be- 
cause they  come  from  his  superior  officer,  but  because 
proper  self-respect  and  intelligent  policy  command 
him  to  do  as  he  is  told  to  do. 

The  trouble  with  many  employees,  and  especially 
salesmen,  is  that  they  do  not  sufficiently  respect  them- 
selves to  keep  them  from  chafing  under  discipline  and 
from  cheerfully  following  orders.  Because  of  lack  of 
self-respect  they  have  a  false  idea  of  their  rights  and 
a  childish  desire  for  independence.  They  forget  that 
the  discipline  over  the  under-man  is  necessary  to  fit 
him  to  become  the  over-man,  and  that  the  harder 
one  works  for  another,  and  the  better  he  carries  out 
another's  policy,  until  he  has  a  right  to  have  one  of 
his  own,  the  more  he  is  really  working  for  himself 
and  building  up  for  himself  the  great  asset  of  success, 
—  reputation. 

Every  employee,  whether  he  sweeps  out  the  office, 
or  dusts  the  desk,  or  stands  behind  the  counter,  or 
sells  goods  on  the  road,  is  from  the  start  primarily 
working  for  himself,  and  a  realization  of  this  is  the 
first  step  up  the  ladder  of  fame  and  fortune. 

Duty  to  oneself  is  as  important  as  duty  to  another,  for 
self-duty  enables  one  to  better  perform  outside  duties. 


96  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

One  cannot  have  too  high  a  respect  for  himself,  for 
respect  does  not  exist  without  justification.  Self- 
conceit  is  an  entirely  different  affair.  Self-respect 
does  not  make  one  wear  plumes  and  strut  through 
street  or  office,  but  enables  him  to  properly  measure 
and  gauge  himself  and  to  do  his  best  wherever  he  may 
be,  and  to  respect  himself  as  much  when  following 
orders  as  he  would  if  he  were  giving  orders. 

The  man  who  cannot  with  self-respect  follow  an 
order  will  never  be  permitted  to  order  anybody  else. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  so  many  remain  in  sub- 
ordinate positions  is  because  they  do  not  realize  that 
they  have  two  commanders,  —  themselves  and  their 
employers,  —  and  because  they  do  not  recognize  that 
great  law  of  business,  and  of  profit,  which  does  not 
permit  the  man  who  is  unfaithful  to  himself  to  ever 
be  faithful  to  others. 

If  you  would  succeed,  no  matter  what  your  position 
may  be,  realize  that  you  are  both  an  employer  and  an 
employee,  that  you  are  your  own  commander  first 
and  always,  you  as  commander  of  yourself  taking 
orders  from  your  superior  officer,  your  employer.  So 
long  as  you  respect  yourself  as  both  your  employer 
and  employee,  and  your  employer  as  the  general-in- 
chief,  following  orders,  not  as  a  servant  even  though 
you  occupy  that  position,  but  as  a  self-respecting 
worker,  you  are  on  the  high-road  to  achievement. 


ANTAGONIZING  THE  CUSTOMER 

I  HAVE  reason  to  believe  that  there  exists  some- 
where a  perfectly  calm,  well-balanced,  and  nicely 
poised  individual.  I  think  I  have  seen  him,  but  I 
may  have  been  mistaken.  The  fellow  I  saw,  however, 
who  was  supposed  to  have  reached  and  to  have  main- 
tained hair-spring  equipoise,  was  a  next-to-worthless 
sort  of  chap,  physically  sluggish,  and  with  a  men- 
tality incapable  even  of  disease.  He  was  simply  an 
automaton. 

Most  of  us,  especially  if  we  amount  to  anything  and 
are  able  to  originate  and  do  things  out  of  the  common, 
are  not  usually  perfectly  poised  and  are  not  always  in 
good  command  of  ourselves.  Some  of  us  seem  to  be 
born  with  the  proverbial  chip  upon  our  shoulders, 
and  by  look  and  by  word  enjoin  every  one  we  meet 
to  knock  it  off  that  we  may  have  excuse  for  retaliation. 

Lack  of  poise  is  a  part  of  human  nature,  or,  at  least, 
of  the  brand  now  prevailing.  For  the  present  it  can- 
not be  fully  conquered,  and,  perhaps,  it  will  remain 
forever  a  part  of  the  every-day  world. 

The  strenuous  life  we  are  living,  and  the  continuous 
tide  of  sorrows  which  flows  deep  enough  to  drown  us, 
keep  us  on  edge,  and  it  is  easy  for  us  to  slip  and  fall. 
Things  which  should  not  affect  us  at  all,  or  concern 
us  but  slightly,  often  trouble  us  the  most.  We  are 


98  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

raw,  and  filled  with  mental  sores,  which  pain  us  from 
the  inside,  and  which,  combined  with  outside  annoy- 
ances, naturally  make  us  morose  and  irritable. 

This  self-made  and  absorbed  irritability  antagonizes 
those  we  come  in  contact  with,  partly  because  they 
have  similar  troubles,  for  when  trouble  meets  trouble 
there  is  a  doubling  up  of  trouble. 

Every  buyer  is  likely  to  be  more  or  less  worried, 
either  in  business  or  at  home.  It  will  not  take  much 
to  throw  him  off  his  center. 

The  salesman  may  be  in  the  same  condition.  Things 
do  not  run  smoothly  with  him.  It  is  natural  for  him 
to  want  to  vent  his  troubles  or  his  spleen  upon  the 
customer,  and  by  so  doing  he  cannot  help  antago- 
nizing him,  or  irritating  him,  or  doing  something,  or 
showing  something,  which  is  not  conducive  to  the 
consummation  of  a  sale. 

There  are  some  people  who  seem  to  have  a  nat- 
urally antagonistical  disposition,  who  think  they  are 
worried  or  troubled  whether  they  are  or  not,  and  who 
appear  to  delight  in  opposing  those  they  come  in 
contact  with.  This  is  undoubtedly  a  disease,  and 
must  be  so  treated,  for  it  is  obvious  that  no  person 
would  in  his  right  mind  deliberately  injure  himself 
that  he  may  injure  another.  But  it  makes  no  differ- 
ence whether  we  are  antagonistical  for  cause  or  with- 
out it.  We  must  conquer  the  outside  appearance  of 
it  if  we  would  be  more  than  mediocre  salesmen. 

If  we  are  worried  and  troubled,  and  feel  like  antag- 


ANTAGONIZING  THE  CUSTOMER       99 

onizing  every  one  we  come  in  contact  with,  and  seem 
to  have  a  morbid  delight  in  opposing  others,  we  must 
get  rid  of  that  feeling,  and  act  as  though  we  had  a 
glad  hand  for  all  the  world,  or  else  we  must  give  up 
trying  to  sell  goods  and  get  a  job  flagging  a  train  or 
standing  as  night-watchman  for  a  house  in  the 
wilderness. 

If  the  customer  wanted  to  buy  as  much  as  the  sales- 
man wanted  to  sell  him,  the  salesman  could  do  as  he 
pleased.  But,  as  the  salesman  is  the  solicitor,  —  the 
asker,  —  he  must  maintain  his  equilibrium  if  he  would 
effect  a  sale. 

I  have  already  said  that  comparatively  few  sales- 
men sell  monopolies,  that  the  customer  can  usually 
get  what  he  wants  without  patronizing  any  one  house. 
This  being  the  case,  the  personality  of  the  salesman 
counts  mightily,  and  justifies  me  in  making  the  state- 
ment that  the  chief  reason  why  some  people  will  not 
buy  of  some  salesmen  is  because  the  salesmen  antago- 
nize them.  They  rub  the  customer  the  wrong  way. 
They  wear  their  troubles  on  their  faces.  They  allow 
even  a  justifiable  irritability  to  show,  or  they  appear 
to  be  too  important  and  to  have  more  conceit  than 
self-respect.  If  the  customer  gives  them  provocation 
for  being  disgusted,  they  show  it  at  the  sacrifice  of 
good  judgment  and  business,  or  they  may  over-force 
their  goods  and  throw  naked  advice  at  the  customer. 

The  customer  wants  a  certain  line  of  goods  or  a 
particular  pattern.  The  salesman  does  not  have  it, 


100  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

and  he,  in  a  supercilious  way,  crowds  an  unwelcome 
article  upon  the  customer,  forces  upon  him  gratuitous 
advice  in  allopathic  doses,  and  he  makes  the  customer 
feel  that  he  has  no  judgment,  and  that  the  salesman 
thinks  he  knows  it  all.  Immediate  antagonism  sets 
in,  or  the  salesman,  for  the  best  of  reasons,  objects 
to  the  purchase  of  certain  articles,  and,  instead  of 
advising  the  customer  as  a  friend  to  buy  something 
else,  he  expresses  his  objection  in  an  arbitrary  way, 
completely  off-setting  his  good  intentions. 

Many  a  salesman  is  perceivably  filled  with  a  sense 
of  his  own  importance.  He  appears  to  condescend  to 
wait  upon  the  customer,  to  make  him  feel  that  he  is 
doing  him  a  favor  by  waiting  upon  him.  The  opposite 
is  right  and  good  business. 

Perhaps  the  customer  cannot  afford  to  buy  first- 
class  goods.  Nothing  interferes  more  with  a  sale 
than  to  make  him  ashamed  of  his  limited  pocket-book. 

If  the  woman  wants  to  purchase  only  a  paper  of 
pins,  and  second  grade  at  that,  so  long  as  the  quality 
will  answer  her  purpose,  or  she  cannot  afford  to  buy 
what  would  be  cheaper  in  the  end,  it  is  bad  policy 
to  give  her  any  advice  which  she  cannot  take  advantage 
of.  If  she  is  making  a  grave  mistake,  and  there  appears 
to  be  no  reason  why  she  should  not  buy  something 
better,  then  advise  her,  but  do  it  with  care. 

The  stores  which  have  built  up  a  lasting  and  envi- 
able reputation  are  those  which  recognize  all  customers 
as  equal,  whether  they  be  poor  or  rich,  sensible  or 


ANTAGONIZING  THE  CUSTOMER      101 

foolish,  and  which  carry  in  regular  stock  ready  for 
immediate  delivery  a  complete  assortment  of  good- 
will and  courtesy. 

While  you  are  selling  goods  you  must  maintain 
your  balance  or  you  will  fail.  If  you  feel  in  an  antago- 
nistical  mood,  go  away  by  yourself  and  take  it  out 
on  yourself.  Get  rid  of  it,  or  cauterize  it,  before  you 
meet  the  customer. 

I  am  talking  business  fact,  —  cold-blooded  selling 
fact.  You  must  rid  yourself  of  that  antagonistical 
feeling  or  go  out  of  the  selling  business.  There  is  no 
other  way. 

When  a  customer  asks  for  information,  do  not  snap 
it  at  him.  He  has  a  right  to  ask  foolish  questions, 
and  it  is  your  business  to  answer  them  to  the  best  of 
your  ability.  You  probably  would  be  as  foolish  on 
his  ground  as  he  is  on  yours. 

Make  every  customer  feel  that  you  appreciate  his 
orders. 

Do  not  say:  "Will  that  be  all!"  as  though  you 
were  not  satisfied  with  the  size  of  the  sale.  You  may 
politely  suggest  something  else,  or  call  his  attention 
to  some  article;  but  make  him  feel  that  you  appreciate 
his  cents  as  well  as  his  dollars.  At  least  appear  to  value 
the  five-cent  buyer  as  much  as  the  five-dollar  purchaser. 

If  you  offer  advice,  give  it  in  a  suggestive  way. 
Never  forget  to  say  "thank  you,"  or  to  use  some  other 
similar  expression.  Say  something,  if  only  a  few 
words  about  the  weather,  which  shows  cordiality  and 


102  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

appreciation.  Make  the  customer  feel  glad  that  he 
has  bought  of  you  and  proud  of  his  selection.  If  you 
switch  him  off  from  one  thing  to  another,  make  him 
feel  that  he  has  done  it,  not  you;  that  you  brought 
these  things  to  his  attention,  allowing  him  to  make 
the  decision. 

If  you  find  that  certain  expressions  appear  to  antag- 
onize the  customer,  change  them  for  others. 

Experiment  with  your  tongue  as  well  as  with  your 
manner,  and  strike  a  happy  medium. 

With  a  little  effort,  if  you  have  selling  instinct,  you 
can  tell  whether  the  customer  is  pleased  or  not,  or 
whether  you  antagonize  him  or  not.  Then  do  differ- 
ently next  time,  if  what  you  have  done  does  not  pro- 
duce results. 

You  are  going  to  antagonize  a  few,  for  the  combined 
efforts  of  a  thousand  angels,  multiplied  a  thousand 
times,  will  not  satisfy  some  customers. 

But  the  majority  of  people  respond  to  politeness, 
and  will  appreciate  the  courteous  salesman,  even 
though  they  may  appear  not  to  do  so. 

Never  wait  for  the  customer  to  meet  you.  Be  a 
little  ahead  of  him.  Anticipate  his  wants  if  you  can. 
At  any  rate,  appear  to  be  interested.  You  must  cater 
to  him  whether  he  be  unreasonable  or  not,  and  keep 
from  antagonizing  him.  If  he  is  half-decent,  and  you 
are  all-decent,  you  may  succeed  in  selling  him.  If 
you  do  not,  let  the  fault  be  his  or  the  goods,  not  yours. 


GETTING  ACQUAINTED  WITH  THE 
CUSTOMER 

THE  better  you  know  your  customer,  and  the  more 
you  know  about  him,  the  easier  you  can  handle  him. 
Comparatively  few  sales  of  any  magnitude  have  been 
consummated  between  strangers.  An  acquaintance 
with  the  customer,  personal  or  limited  to  some  knowl- 
edge about  him,  appears  to  be  necessary,  and  prob- 
ably is,  for  most  sales  of  consequence. 

The  traveling  salesman  considers  it  his  duty  to 
know  something  about  the  buyer  before  he  approaches 
him.  Of  course,  he  does  not  refuse  to  meet  the  man 
he  does  not  know  or  knows  nothing  about;  but,  if  it 
is  possible,  he  carries  with  him  some  general  or  specific 
knowledge  of  the  person  he  proposes  to  meet. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  counter-man  cannot  know  all 
of  his  customers  or  know  anything  about  them,  and 
it  may  be  impossible  for  him  to  become  at  all  acquainted 
with  many  of  those  he  meets;  but  he  should  make  an 
effort  to  become  acquainted  with  them,  to  discover 
their  likes  and  dislikes,  their  temperaments,  and  the 
quality  and  quantity  of  their  buying.  With  this 
knowledge  he  can  better  present  his  goods  and  much 
easier  consummate  a  sale.  He  can  become  acquainted 
with  some  of  them,  or  learn  something  about  them, 


104  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHP 

even  though  they  may  not  feel  acquainted  with 
him. 

There  is  a  social  side  to  selling.  Few  good  buyers 
or  good  salesmen  exclusively  confine  their  conversa- 
tion to  business.  The  buyer  often  speaks  of  other 
things,  and  he  expects  the  salesman  to  meet  him  half 
way,  and  the  salesman  may  at  times  take  the  initia- 
tive if  he  is  acquainted  with  the  customer  or  knows 
something  about  him.  This  acquaintanceship,  which 
may  ripen  into  friendship,  places  the  salesman  in  a 
profitable  position. 

Of  course,  one  must  not  be  objectionably  familiar, 
and  should  not  forget  that  business  is  business,  and 
that  friendship  is  not  universally  considered  a  part 
of  business.  But  acquaintanceship,  with  or  without 
friendship,  is  always  to  be  desired. 

The  bright  salesman  will  get  inside  of  his  customer, 
so  to  speak;  find  out  about  him,  know  him,  and  be, 
therefore,  prepared  to  meet  him  on  his  ground,  to  do 
and  say  things  which  he  wants,  and  to  create  a  cer- 
tain social  atmosphere  in  trade  which  smooths  the 
rough  edges  of  business-doing. 

While  it  is  impossible  to  become  acquainted  with 
all  customers,  or  to  know  anything  about  more  than 
a  proportion  of  them,  quiet  inquiry  will  bring  to  the 
salesman  a  vast  amount  of  workable  knowledge  of 
who  and  what  the  customers  are  and  of  what  they 
like  and  dislike. 

Traveling    salesmen    can    easily    obtain    advance 


GETTING  ACQUAINTED  105 

information  from  the  salesmen  who  preceded  them,  or 
from  other  salesmen,  so  that  they  seldom  find  it  neces- 
sary to  meet  a  buyer  entirely  unknown  to  them. 

The  reason  why  many  retail  salesmen  do  not  know 
their  customers  is  because  they  make  no  effort  to 
become  acquainted  with  them.  They  act  as  autom- 
atons, selling  a  customer  if  they  can,  and  without 
making  any  effort  to  bring  him  back  for  subsequent 
purchases.  They  seem  to  be  satisfied  with  the  first 
sale,  and  take  no  thought  of  the  second,  notwithstand- 
ing that  any  sale  following  the  first  sale  is  likely  to  be 
much  more  profitable. 

Many  a  salesman  is  more  of  a  waiter  than  a  coaxer 
of  trade.  He  stands  behind  the  counter  and  does 
what  he  cannot  very  well  help  doing.  He  does  not 
volunteer  or  take  the  initiative.  He  is  not  a  true 
salesman,  and  because  he  is  not,  he  receives  a  low 
salary,  which  is  probably  as  much  as  he  is  worth. 
So  far  as  one  can  see,  he  has  no  interest  in  the  store 
he  works  in,  the  goods  he  sells,  or  the  people  who 
buy  them.  He  is  not  promoted,  because  he  does  not 
deserve  to  be.  His  customers  appear  to  pass  before 
him  like  moving  pictures  on  a  screen. 

Often  we  find  one  who  respects  the  man  he  works 
for,  who  is  interested  in  the  goods  he  sells,  and  who  is 
not  indifferent  to  the  customer.  Unless  the  concern 
is  of  the  lowest  order,  this  interest  is  appreciated, 
usually  substantially. 

Part  of  the  success  of  this  salesman  is  due  to  a  sort 


106  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

of  informal  acquaintanceship  he  has  with  his  custom- 
ers. He  may  not  know  their  names,  but  he  knows 
them,  and  they  may  not  know  who  he  is,  but  they  feel 
acquainted  with  him.  Between  this  salesman  and  the 
customer  springs  a  sort  of  friendly  acquaintanceship, 
a  something  which  makes  it  easier  for  them  to  trade 
together. 

Probably,  in  most  cases,  he  has  become  acquainted 
with  his  customers  from  coming  in  contact  with  them. 
From  their  own  lips  and  from  their  own  manners  he 
has  ascertained  their  characteristics,  their  likes  and 
dislikes.  He  knows  something  about  them,  and  can, 
therefore,  handle  them  to  advantage;  yes,  to  mutual 
advantage,  for  this  sort  of  business  initiative  enables 
the  seller  to  sell  at  greater  profit  and  the  buyer  to 
buy  to  greater  advantage. 

The  traveling  salesman  knows,  or  should  know,  the 
name  of  the  buyer,  that  he  may  address  him  by  name. 
This  condition  cannot  universally  prevail  behind  the 
counter,  but  a  little  effort  on  the  part  of  the  sales- 
man will  enable  him  to  call  many  a  customer  by  name. 

Nothing  pleases  the  customer  more  than  to  be 
addressed  by  name  by  the  salesman  he  does  not  know. 
It  almost  invariably  creates  a  good  impression  and 
establishes  a  sort  of  friendship.  How  much  better  it 
is  to  address  a  lady  in  front  of  the  counter  with  "Good 
morning,  Mrs.  Smith,"  than  with  "What  can  I  do 
for  you,  madam?  " 

Every  store   has  regular  customers,  even  though 


GETTING  ACQUAINTED  107 

they  may  not  carry  charge  accounts.  A  proportion  of 
the  goods  are  delivered,  and  the  salesman  has  the 
opportunity  of  ascertaining  the  name  of  the  customer. 
He  should  remember  it  and  the  face,  that  he  may 
address  him  by  name  the  next  time  he  calls.  After 
he  has  found  out  the  name  of  the  customer,  it  is  well 
to  repeat  it  often,  but  without  over-doing  it.  If  a 
customer  is  making  extensive  purchases,  it  is  easy  to 
address  him  by  name  from  twice  to  a  dozen  times 
during  the  sale.  This  simple  art  of  knowing  the  name, 
and  of  using  it,  has  great  selling  value. 

Do  not  think  that  you  cannot  become  acquainted 
with  some  of  your  customers,  or  that  you  cannot 
learn  their  names.  You  can  if  you  want  to,  and  if 
you  want  to  you  are  sure  to  make  the  necessary  effort. 
If  you  do  not  do  it,  it  is  because  you  will  not,  not 
because  you  cannot. 


PERSONAL  APPEARANCE 

THE  outside  of  man  or  of  woman  does  not  make 
either  of  them  or  stand  for  intrinsic  quality  and  real 
ability.  Among  folks  who  think  and  have  well-thought- 
out  ideals,  dress  and  other  personal  adornment  count 
for  practically  nothing.  They  are  known  by  what 
they  are  and  they  judge  others  fairly. 

But  business  is  an  entirely  different  proposition. 
Its  ethics  are  its  own.  It  is  arbitrary  and  command- 
ing, always  doing  as  it  pleases,  sometimes  outraging 
the  better  part  of  life  and  establishing  a  code  of  morals 
which  are  not  more  than  technically  right. 

Fortunately  or  unfortunately,  men  of  business  are 
judged  to  an  extent,  often  to  a  great  extent,  by  their 
personal  appearance. 

Because  our  clothes  are  always  in  evidence,  what 
we  wear,  and  all  parts  of  us  which  can  be  seen,  are 
of  commercial  consequence. 

The  over-dressed  man  and  woman  never  command 
respect  even  among  their  kind.  Over-dressing  is 
against  good  taste,  good  morals,  good  breeding,  self- 
respect,  and  good  business. 

Business  ethics  demands  that  its  people  dress  becom- 
ingly and  make  a  neat  and  appropriate  appearance, 
of  which  extravagance  is  not  a  part. 


PERSONAL  APPEARANCE  109 

True,  some  salesmen  are  of  unkempt  appearance, 
and  are  often  actually  unclean;  and  yet  they  sell 
goods  in  spite  of  that;  but  it  is  certain  that  they 
would  do  more  business  if  they  gave  attention  to 
personal  habits  and  appearances. 

But  do  not  forget  that  even  the  best  clothes  made 
by  the  best  tailors  do  not  add  to  one's  appearance,  if 
they  are  not  kept  clean  and  are  not  in  harmony  with 
the  face  and  figure.  Clean  clothes  are  more  essential 
than  good  clothes. 

The  inexpensively  dressed  man,  with  shoes  blacked, 
his  clothes  well  brushed  and  pressed,  makes  a  better 
appearance,  and  is  better  attired  for  business,  than  is 
he  of  fashionable  but  untidy  garments.  Perhaps  you 
cannot  help  looking  shabby,  but  you  can  look  clean. 

The  well-dressed  person,  or,  rather,  the  properly 
dressed  person,  is  one  whose  clothes  attract  no  par- 
ticular attention,  because  they  are  in  such  perfect 
taste  that  no  one  part  of  them  can  stand  out  in  relief. 
If  there  is  something  startling  or  striking  about  the 
dress,  the  owner  will  be  known  by  the  clothes  he  wears, 
and  this  is  against  him.  No  one  should  be  conspicu- 
ously dressed,  for  conspicuousness  is  always  in  bad 
taste. 

Comparatively  few  of  us  can  tell  how  the  well-dressed 
person  is  dressed.  We  simply  know  that  his  garments 
are  appropriate  and  in  harmony  with  him. 

Proper  dress  is  a  part  of  the  person  wearing  it,  and 
harmonizes  with  him,  and  he  is  seen  as  a  completed 


110  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

whole  and  not  recognized  by  any  particular  pattern, 
'or  fabric,  or  necktie. 

Finery,  and  especially  cheap  finery,  should  be 
avoided.  The  gaudy  watch-chain  is  in  bad  taste, 
and  so  is  the  flashy  necktie,  or  any  conspicuous  dis- 
play of  jewelry,  or  anything  else  for  show  only. 

Not  only  should  we  be  comfortable,  but  we  should 
look  comfortable. 

There  is  no  excuse  for  unblacked  shoes  or  for  the 
unshaved  face.  The  linen  should  be  spotlessly  clean. 

No  man  should  use  perfumery,  and  I  see  no  reason 
why  this  rule  should  not  apply  to  women. 

Women,  especially,  should  avoid  that  loud  or  flashy 
look  which  so  many  seem  to  think  is  a  necessary  part 
of  business. 

The  hands  should  be  clean,  and  the  finger  nails 
well  taken  care  of. 

Many  a  woman  injures  her  commercial  value  by 
the  dress  of  her  hair.  If  she  does  not  know  how  to  do 
it  up  properly,  let  her  consult  some  one  who  does. 

Business  men  and  women  should  dress  to  please 
others,  not  themselves,  to  be  acceptable  to  the  majority 
of  people  they  come  in  contact  with. 

Adornment  for  mere  personal  gratification  is  sheer 
selfishness  and  shows  the  very  extreme  of  personal 
vulgarity. 

Neatness  is  always  essential,  from  the  top  of  the 
head  to  the  bottom  of  the  shoes;  and  outside  neat- 
ness is  impossible  without  inside  cleanliness. 


PERSONAL  APPEARANCE  111 

The  face  is,  to  an  extent,  the  mirror  of  character. 
At  any  rate,  we  are  often  judged  by  our  facial  expres- 
sion and  appearance.  Clothes  should,  therefore, 
harmonize  with  the  face  and  figure.  A  fabric  which 
looks  well  on  one  may  injure  the  appearance  of  another. 

Many  of  us  make  a  mistake  by  constant  change. 
We  over-rate  the  value  of  variety.  We  do  not  want 
two  suits  alike,  or  anywhere  near  alike,  and  this  change 
operates  against  our  outward  appearance. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  one  should  wear  the  same 
fabric  all  of  the  time,  if  one  particular  kind  becomes 
him,  but  I  advise  him  not  to  depart  far  from  an  accept- 
able style  and  pattern. 

Loud  styles  and  patterns  should  always  be  avoided. 
When  in  doubt,  use  the  plainest  designs  and  the 
simplest  cloths. 

The  foolish  woman,  who  over-dresses  herself,  who 
turns  her  body  into  a  frame  for  the  hanging  of  ultra 
styles,  despises  the  woman  who  looks  as  she  does, 
for  no  woman,  not  even  the  worst  offender,  has  any 
respect  for  the  over-dressed.  Conspicuous  clothes 
should  be  limited  to  the  stage.  They  have  no  place 
in  every-day  life. 

Unusual  adornment,  and  the  attempt  to  look  smart, 
antagonize  the  buyer,  even  though  he  or  she  may  be 
superlative  monuments  of  the  vulgarity  of  style. 

The  tendency  to  over-dress  on  the  part  of  the  fresh 
drummer  is  to  be  deplored.  He  may  do  business  in 
spite  of  making  an  ass  of  himself. 


112  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

The  girl  behind  the  counter  can  do  little  to  greater 
injure  herself  and  her  trade  than  to  make  a  show  of 
herself  by  the  striking  appearance  of  her  clothes. 

We  are  nearing  an  age  of  simplicity.  Simplicity 
has  become  an  art.  Our  best  people  are  applying  the 
principles  of  simplicity  to  the  clothes  they  wear. 

So  long  as  you  remain  a  salesman,  you,  as  well  as 
your  goods,  are  for  sale,  or,  rather,  you  are  a  part  of 
the  transaction.  While  you  occupy  this  position  it 
is  as  necessary  for  you  to  well  present  yourself  as 
it  is  for  you  to  well  present  your  goods.  You  cannot 
separate  the  two. 

If  you  would  do  good  business,  carry  to  your  buyer 
the  best  you  have  in  merchandise,  and  the  best  you 
have  in  actual  self  and  in  the  appearance  of  it. 


GOOD  NATURE  IN  SELLING 

THE  selling-end  official  of  one  of  the  most  success- 
ful American  corporations,  employing  a  small  army 
of  salesmen,  said  to  me,  in  all  seriousness  and  emphati- 
cally, that  he  considered  good  nature  the  greatest 
essential  to  profitable  salesmanship.  He  claimed  that 
his  observations  and  experiments,  covering  a  period 
of  a  quarter  of  a  century,  led  him  to  feel  positive  that 
this  quality  —  good  nature  —  was  worth  more  than 
anything  else  in  the  consummation  of  trade. 

The  reputation  of  his  house  is  world-wide,  and  to 
my  friend  is  due  in  no  small  measure  the  international 
position  which  it  occupies.  He  is  in  charge  of  the 
salesmen  and  of  everything  pertaining  to  the  output 
of  the  product,  and  is,  therefore,  largely  responsible 
for  the  selling  success  of  the  business. 

What  he  says  is  worthy  of  the  greatest  respect,  and 
I  would  not  take  exceptions  to  it,  if  other  equally 
proficient  managers  of  salesmen  did  not  differ  from 
him  in  not  placing  good  nature  at  the  apex  of  the 
selling  monument. 

But  whether  he  is  right  or  wrong,  good  nature  is 
one  of  the  prime  essentials  to  successful  salesmanship. 
Without  it,  it  is  well  nigh  impossible  to  sell  goods, 
except  to  the  few  who  insist  upon  having  what  is 
offered. 


114  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

The  over-dignified  man,  or  he  who  is  morose,  whose 
face  is  lined  with  a  map  of  disappointment,  cannot 
rub  elbows  with  the  trade  or  extend  the  glad-hand  to 
anybody. 

While  too  much  familiarity  is  objectionable  and 
defeats  many  a  sale,  good  nature,  even  too  great  a 
display  of  it,  makes  no  enemies,  is  sure  to  create  a 
good  impression,  and  is  largely  responsible  for  the 
formation  and  maintenance  of  business  friendship. 

Notwithstanding  that  the  action  of  business  is 
often  heartless  and  sometimes  cruel,  and  that  senti- 
ment is  not  supposed  to  enter  into  the  composition  of 
trading,  there  is  such  a  thing  as  friendship  in  business. 

So  long  as  human  nature  exists,  likes  and  dislikes 
will  play  leading  roles  on  every  stage  of  life.  Many  of 
our  firmest  friendships  grew  from  business  connec- 
tions, and  many  a  buyer  and  salesman  are  chums. 

It  is  said  that  it  does  not  pay  to  do  business  with 
friends  and  that  it  is  unprofitable  to  cultivate  friend- 
ship between  buyer  and  seller.  Perhaps  the  statement 
borders  on  the  truth,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  the  first- 
class  buyer  and  salesman  usually  meet  harmoniously 
and  profitably  upon  both  the  business  and  social  field. 

As  a  rule  real  friendship  does  not  interfere  with  any 
action,  and  is  an  aid  to  selling  and  to  business-doing. 
Therefore,  anything  which  contributes  to  it  benefits 
the  parties  involved. 

Do  not  misunderstand  me.  I  am  not  asking  the 
salesman  to  become  the  chum  or  the  intimate  friend 


GOOD  NATURE  IN  SELLING          115 

of  his  customer.  This  condition  would  be  impossible, 
except  with  a  selected  few;  but  I  do  say  that  good 
fellowship  between  buyer  and  seller  not  only  robs 
selling  of  much  of  its  disagreeableness,  but  is  a  prof- 
itable asset  which  should  be  cultivated  by  both  sides. 

There  are  expert  salesmen  who  seem  to  live  within 
the  hard  shell  of  an  assumed  but  never  a  natural 
dignity,  for  natural  dignity  is  approachable.  These 
men  succeed,  or,  at  least,  they  are  not  failures.  They 
smile  not,  neither  do  they  laugh.  They  have  no  sense 
of  humor.  Their  action  is  automatic,  and  automati- 
cally they  work. 

But  take  the  great  rank  and  file  of  successful  sales- 
men, whether  on  the  road  or  behind  the  counter,  the 
men  who  do  business  are  usually  those  who  radiate 
good  nature. 

The  buyer  may  do  what  he  pleases.  He  is  seldom 
obliged  to  trade  with  any  one  man  or  at  any  one  store. 
He  has,  or  he  assumes,  the  right  of  discrimination  for 
and  against  the  goods  and  the  seller  of  them.  If  he 
personally  likes  the  salesman,  he  is  glad  to  see  him  or 
does  not  object  to  seeing  him;  and  if  he  sees  him  and 
talks  with  him,  he  places  himself  under  his  influence. 
If  the  salesman  has  a  pleasant  face  and  manner,  he  will 
do  much  to  dispel  the  gloom  which  is  often  present  in 
the  buyer's  office;  and  this  radiation  of  cheerfulness 
cannot  help  adding  to  the  selling  chances  of  the  sales- 
man. 

Many    a  man  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  his 


116  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

goods  and  an  ability  to  talk  understanding!?-  has 
failed  to  make  good  because  of  his  lack  of  cheerful- 
ness and  of  the  shadow  he  casts  around  him  when  he 
attempts  to  present  a  selling  argument. 

But  avoid  being  too  familiar,  particularly  with  the 
buyers  you  do  not  know  well.  Good  nature  does  not 
need  to  descend  to  that.  It  does  not  have  to  travel  on 
a  train  of  jokes  or  depend  upon  funny  stories,  both  of 
which  have  their  places. 

The  good  nature  which  is  a  selling  asset  is  that 
dignified  or  well-regulated  cordiality,  that  lighting  up 
of  the  face,  that  seeming  to  be  on  good  terms  with 
yourself  and  the  world,  that  something  which  makes 
people  glad  to  see  you  and  sorry  to  have  you  go;  and 
if  they  are  glad  to  see  you  they  will  talk  to  you  and 
let  you  talk  to  them.  When  they  allow  that,  half  of 
the  selling  battle  is  won. 

Most  of  us  need  cheering  up,  for  business  is  hard 
and  losses  are  frequent.  The  buyer  is  close  to  the 
troubles  of  his  business.  He  carries  the  heavy  weights 
of  loss.  The  good-natured  salesman  brings  to  him  a 
ray  of  sunshine,  which  he  appreciates  and  for  which 
he  may  reciprocate. 


CONSERVATISM  AND  TAKING  CHANCES 

THE  field  of  business  is  divided  by  a  very  high  and  a 
very  strong  fence.  On  one  side  are  the  conservatives, 
on  the  other  the  liberals  and  those  popularly  supposed 
to  represent  the  more  progressive  element. 

Just  here  may  I  not  take  an  exception  to  applying 
progressiveness  wholly  to  the  liberal,  for  the  conserva- 
tive may  not  be  unprogressive,  although  his  enterprise 
does  not  appear  to  be  so  much  in  evidence? 

Thoroughly  conservative  men,  even  those  who  rep- 
resent the  old-fashioned  moss-backs,  have  achieved 
fame  and  fortune;  and  men  of  opposite  tendencies,  the 
most  liberal  in  action,  have  made  as  great  or  greater 
successes.  Both  have  their  place  in  the  economy  and 
action  of  business,  and  the  two  classes  will  for  many 
years  continue  to  exist,  to  be  eventually  amalgamated. 

But  I  think  that  the  man  of  superlative  success,  who 
gets  the  most  out  of  his  opportunities,  is  a  composite 
man,  a  liberal-conservative  or  a  conservative-liberal,  a 
man  of  both  action  and  vision,  always  cautious,  and 
yet  not  unwilling  to  consider  the  taking  of  reasonable 
chances  whenever  he  can  afford  to  experiment. 

The  element  of  risk  exists  in  all  business-doing.  The 
man  who  will  not  move  until  the  "  surety-of-certainty " 
is  guaranteed  seldom  moves  at  all.  The  stagnant  pool 


118  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

behaves  itself.  There  is  not  a  drop  of  liberalism  in  its 
muddiness,  while  the  on-rushing  river  occasionally 
damages  the  property  on  either  side  of  it;  but  it  moves, 
and  to  its  activity  must  be  credited  more  profit  than 
loss. 

Just  the  right  amount  of  conservatism,  mixed  with  a 
similar  volume  of  liberalism,  accomplishes  the  com- 
pleteness of  result;  but  I  doubt  if  this  compound  ever 
contained  an  equal  amount  of  both,  for  I  have  never 
seen  a  business  man  who  had  not  made  mistakes. 

The  perfectly  balanced  man  of  business  would  never 
err  in  judgment.  He  could  not  fail  except  by  outside 
pressure.  If  this  individual  lives,  he  has  never  come 
inside  the  horizon  of  my  sight,  and  I  do  not  know  of 
any  one  who  has  seen  him. 

As  none  of  us  are  perfect,  and  as  all  of  us  must  err 
in  judgment,  and  as  there  is  always  a  risk  in  business- 
doing  no  matter  how  conservatively  it  may  be  main- 
tained, we  must  recognize  both  the  conservative  and 
liberal  methods  of  doing  things,  leaning  for  safety's 
sake  towards  conservatism  when  in  doubt,  and  yet 
not  afraid  to  take  reasonable  chances  unless  family  or 
other  responsibilities  require  us  to  be  over-slow  that 
we  may  be  nearer-sure. 

I  very  much  doubt  if  any  great  success  was  ever 
made  unaccompanied  with  some  risk.  But  there  is  a 
marked  difference  between  desperate  risk,  fool-hardy 
plunges,  and  the  taking  of  legitimate  chances. 

No  one  should  stake  his  all  unless  compelled  to  do 


CONSERVATISM  AND  TAKING  CHANCES    119 

so.  If  he  have  both  feet  firmly  planted  upon  the  con- 
servative road  to  accomplishment,  he  is  justified  in 
experimenting  with  both  arms  and  hands.  He  may 
look  into  the  sky  if  he  will.  He  may  be  a  man  of  vision 
as  well  as  of  action.  He  may  try  to  see  far  into  the 
future,  even  though  he  is  not  able  to  diagnose  it  with 
full  exactness.  The  man  without  vision,  who  does  not 
once  in  a  while  turn  his  eyes  to  the  clouds  and  make 
pictures  out  of  their  curious  formations,  is  too  firmly 
planted  on  earth  to  move  with  the  speed  of  success; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  visionary  man,  who  is 
unanchored  somewhere,  is  without  a  traveled  orbit 
and  is  like  the  mariner  without  a  chart  or  a  compass. 
He  does  not  know  where  he  is  or  where  he  is  going  to 
land. 

Let  us  suppose,  for  example,  that  you  are  going  to 
meet  a  certain  customer.  Perhaps  you  do  not  know  him 
and  have  no  time  to  find  out  his  characteristics,  and  can- 
not, therefore,  frame  in  advance  any  method  of  action. 
If  you  are  too  aggressive  or  too  progressive,  you  may 
offend  him.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  you  are  too  conser- 
vative, you  may  not  get  close  enough  to  him  to  consum- 
mate a  sale.  In  this  particular  case  the  best  you  can 
do  is  to  take  reasonable  chances,  rather  leaning  towards 
conservatism  than  away  from  it.  Here  the  activity  of 
your  mind  comes  into  play,  and  the  brain  of  the  suc- 
cessful salesman  is  always  alert.  He  is  able  to  change 
from  hot  to  cold,  or  vice  versa,  at  a  moment's  notice. 
If  he  makes  a  mistake,  he  can  usually  correct  it  before 


120  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

it  is  too  late.  He  exercises  caution  at  the  start,  branch- 
ing from  it  as  conditions  permit  or  suggest. 

Experience  is  the  best  teacher.  I  know  of  no  other 
way  of  rightly  mixing  caution  and  its  opposite.  But 
do  not  be  discouraged  if  your  compound  is  not  just 
right.  Perfect  conditions  do  not  exist.  You  will  learn 
from  failure  as  well  as  from  the  success  you  make,  and 
a  few  of  the  former  may  contribute  mightily  to  your 
up-building. 

Try  to  be  as  sure  as  you  can  be,  always  remembering 
that  you  can  never  be  fully  sure. 

Your  time  is  limited.  You  must  learn  to  judge 
quickly,  and  sometimes  instantaneously.  Prepare  for 
each  case  as  much  as  possibility  admits.  Do  not  throw 
yourself  at  chance.  But  when  you  are  rounded  up  at 
the  crack  of  the  business  whip  it  is  usually  better  to 
do  something  and  say  something  than  to  do  nothing 
and  keep  still. 

Cling  to  the  rock  of  conservatism,  but  do  not  become 
so  much  a  part  of  it  that  you  cannot  trust  yourself  to 
leave  it  when  conditions  suggest  a  leave  of  absence. 
When  you  leave  it,  however,  do  not  go  so  far  away  that 
you  cannot  get  back  to  it. 


RESPECT  YOUR  EMPLOYER 

THERE  is  an  unwritten  law  of  business,  from  which 
there  is  no  appeal,  making  your  employer  or  manager 
your  superior  during  the  action  of  business.  He  is  in 
command.  You  are  under  command.  Without  com- 
manders the  soldiers  of  business  would  degenerate  into 
a  mob,  uncontrolled  and  doomed  to  death.  So  long  as 
present  business  remains,  the  business  army  must  be 
divided,  the  employer  to  be  the  officer  in  command,  the 
employee  to  be  subject  to  command. 

There  can  be  no  discipline,  no  connected  work,  no 
successful  endeavor,  without  the  commander  and  the 
commanded,  the  one  to  direct,  the  other  to  follow.  This 
condition  exists  in  every  department  of  work,  from  the 
street  laborer  to  the  manufacturer. 

Because  the  employer  is,  for  the  time  being,  the  su- 
perior of  the  employee,  he  has  a  right  to  expect  and  to 
demand,  not  only  faithfulness,  but  respect  on  the  part 
of  the  employee. 

Few  ever  successfully  commanded  who  have  not 
successfully  worked  under  command.  Therefore,  if 
you  chafe  in  the  harness,  refuse  to  be  guided  by  your 
driver,  and  to  respect  him  while  in  the  field  of  business, 
you  are  not  likely  to  be  fit  to  hold  the  reins  of  direction. 

If  you  cannot  give  your  employer  some  measure  of 
respect  and  look  up  to  him  while  at  work,  there  is 


122  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

something  diametrically  the  matter  with  you  or  with 
him.  If  it  is  with  you,  get  it  out  of  your  system  at 
any  cost,  and  learn  to  respect  the  man  you  work  for 
just  as  long  as  you  are  with  him.  If  the  trouble  is  with 
him,  get  another  position  as  soon  as  you  can.  Or  go 
out  into  the  streets  and  dig  drains,  or  do  some  other 
kind  of  work  which  requires  little  but  the  exercise  of 
brainless  muscle. 

You  can  never  hope  to  succeed  as  an  employee,  or 
to  maintain  your  position  at  the  head  of  anything, 
unless  you  succeed  in  respecting  your  position  so  much 
that  you  cannot  help  respecting  the  man  over  you. 

The  chances  are  that  he  would  not  be  above  you  in 
business,  if  he  were  not,  for  the  time  being,  a  better 
man  than  you  are;  and  it  is  not  likely  that  he  will  re- 
main in  command  of  you  after  you  have  demonstrated 
that  you  are  a  better  man  than  he  is. 

Ninety-nine  and  nine-tenths  per  cent  of  the  men  who 
chafe  under  discipline,  who  have  little  respect  for  their 
managers,  who  are  constantly  back-biting  and  fault- 
finding, and  who  feel  that  they  are  superior  to  their 
environment  and  possess  greater  ability  than  do  those 
above  them,  are  unworthy  of  promotion  and  unfit  to 
assume  responsibility. 

The  world  has  produced  few  leaders  fit  to  lead  who 
have  not  been  successfully  led.  It  is  unlikely  that  you 
can  direct  the  efforts  of  others  until  you  have  learned 
how  to  direct  by  being  directed,  even  if  you  have  back 
of  you  all  the  universities  in  the  land. 


RESPECT  YOUR  EMPLOYER  123 

The  man  above  you  is  probably  there  because  he 
deserves  to  be.  You  are  below  him  probably  because 
you  are  not  sufficiently  disciplined  and  proficient  to 
work  beside  him  or  above  him. 

Occasionally,  the  employee  is  more  competent  than 
the  employer,  but  this  condition  occurs  too  seldom  to 
be  taken  into  consideration. 

The  position  we  occupy  may  be  the  one  we  are  fit 
to  fill,  and  we  can  never  hope  to  rise  from  it  until  we 
have  properly  filled  that  position  and  have  rendered  to 
our  superiors  the  respect  and  duty  due  them. 

Lack  of  respect,  even  for  those  deserving  little  of  it, 
if  they  be  our  managers,  breeds  dissatisfaction,  and  is 
one  of  the  germs  which  stunt  the  growth  of  ambition; 
while  proper  respect,  —  and  I  mean  business  respect 
for  those  above  us  in  business,  —  produces  that  right 
balance  of  mind  and  body  which  starts  one  on  the  right 
road  to  a  successful  future. 


DOING  WHAT  YOU  DO  NOT  HAVE  TO  DO 

THE  world  of  workers  may  be  separated  into  a  hun- 
dred, or  two  hundred,  or,  perhaps,  several  hundred 
classes  of  money-earners;  but  there  are  four  distinct 
kinds  of  men  and  women,  especially  sales-people,  viz.: 

The  first  is  filled  with  the  lazy  and  indifferent,  whether 
competent  or  incompetent,  who  go  and  come  by  the 
clock  when  they  move  at  all,  and  who  work  neither 
for  themselves  nor  for  their  employers.  Some  of 
them  earn  a  living,  most  of  them  a  very  poor  one, 
and  the  names  of  none  of  them  appear  in  any  roll  of 
accomplishment. 

The  second  group  includes  the  technically  faithful 
and  honest,  who  move  slowly  and  by  rule,  who  have 
little  ambition;  but  they  do  in  a  mechanical  way  what 
they  are  told  to  do.  Most  of  them  are  able  to  earn  a 
livelihood. 

Under  the  third  classification,  I  would  place  those 
who  are  conscientious,  honorable,  honest,  faithful,  and 
painstaking,  who  have  some  ambition,  a  desire  to  better 
themselves  and  to  make  full  return  for  what  they 
receive.  To  a  large  extent  they  do  their  best  as  they 
see  it.  They  are  on  hand  to  receive  orders  and  execute 
them  to  the  best  of  their  ability.  They  never  reach  the 
flush  of  success,  but  they  are  usually  well-to-do  and  are 
seldom  subject  to  adverse  criticism. 


WHAT  YOU  DO  NOT  HAVE  TO  DO      125 

The  fourth  class  carries  few  members.  Each  repre- 
sentative of  it  is  a  marked  man  or  woman  who  is  at  the 
top  or  close  to  it.  The  great  captains  of  achievement 
belong  to  this  grade.  Their  incomes,  if  they  are  sales- 
men or  follow  commercial  pursuits,  are  larger,  and 
often  many  times  larger,  than  are  others  in  their  line. 
They  are  ambitious  to  the  extreme,  always  faithful, 
and  yet  their  superlative  success  is  not  due  wholly  to 
their  honesty  or  to  their  faithfulness,  although  both 
of  these  qualities  count  mightily.  They  have  reached 
their  present  positions  because  they  did  a  vast  deal  of 
what  they  were  not  told  to  do,  what  they  did  not  have 
to  do,  and  what  was  not  a  regular  part  of  their  duty. 
They  followed  orders,  and  did  more.  They  never  lost 
an  opportunity  to  do  something  which  was  not  specified 
in  the  written  or  verbal  order  or  request  of  their  em- 
ployers. They  worked  over  hours,  if  the  extra  work 
would  accomplish  anything  and  was  not  likely  to  injure 
them.  They  became  more  familiar  with  the  business 
and  the  goods  they  sold  than  they  were  required  to  be. 
They  used  their  spare  time  in  familiarizing  themselves, 
not  only  with  ordinary  conditions,  but  with  everything 
pertaining  to  the  business  inside  and  out  of  it.  They 
were  always  ready  to  do  more  than  told  to  do,  and  they 
looked  for  these  opportunities  and  improved  them. 
They  made  themselves  a  literal  part  of  the  business, 
far  beyond  ordinary  requirements. 

Every  employer  expects  his  salesmen  to  be  faithful, 
honest,  and  painstaking,  and  to  do  as  they  are  told  to 


126  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

do;  but  he  does  not  and  cannot  demand  more  than  this. 
It  is  optional  with  the  salesman  or  employee.  If  he 
does  what  he  is  told  to  do,  his  work  will  be  recognized 
and  he  will  not  remain  at  the  bottom  of  the  ladder; 
but  there  is  no  height  to  which  he  cannot  attain  if  he 
of  his  own  volition  learns  things  and  does  things  which 
never  appear  in  orders. 

The  man  who  is  strictly  honest  and  faithful,  and 
who  follows  rules  and  regulations,  deserves  promotion 
and  is  to  be  commended;  and  we  should  recognize  him 
even  though  his  virtues  are  negative  and  but  a  display 
of  ordinary  qualities,  the  sort  of  fellow  who  does  nothing 
bad,  and  is  never  a  candidate  for  a  jail  sentence.  His 
goodness  has  kept  him  free  from  arrest,  but  it  has 
accomplished  little  else. 

The  salesman  who  does  only  what  he  has  to  do  is 
faithful,  but  commendable  only  in  a  passive  way,  and 
is  entitled  only  to  conventional  praise;  while  the  man 
who  possesses  all  of  these  qualities,  with  the  addition 
of  constant  and  persistent  activity,  is  sure  to  reap  a 
reward  which  cannot  be  given  to  those  who  do  only 
what  they  have  to  do  or  what  they  are  told  to  do. 

Superlative  success-making  depends  upon  doing  what 
you  are  told  to  do  and  what  you  are  not  told  to  do,  — 
what  you  must  do  and  what  you  need  not  do.  One 
without  the  other  invites  failure.  Together  they  lead 
to  the  tip-top  of  accomplishment. 


THE  KNOCKER 

COMPLETE  satisfaction  is  self-idolatry.  This  world 
is  no  place  for  the  thoroughly  satisfied.  Sensible  dis- 
satisfaction with  self  and  surroundings  is  essential  to 
the  ripening  of  character  and  to  the  making  of  success, 
provided  it  is  normal  and  does  not  exceed  a  reasonable 
quantity. 

But  there  is  a  vast  difference  between  too  much  sat- 
isfaction and  debilitating  dissatisfaction.  The  employee 
who  is  thoroughtly  dissatisfied  with  his  position  and 
prospects  without  intelligent  reason  is  not  likely  to 
reach  more  than  ordinary  achievement.  He  is  doomed 
to  present  or  to  perpetual  failure.  He  cannot  have 
more  than  a  slight  grip  upon  his  business,  a  hold  which 
will  be  loosened  at  the  slightest  pressure. 

I  am  not  asking  the  employee,  whether  he  be  a  sales- 
man or  not,  to  continuously  remain  in  complete  har- 
mony with  business  conditions;  or  to  always  believe 
implicitly  in  the  business  policy  of  his  house,  or  to 
feel  that  he  could  not  in  time  be  better  situated,  or 
that  there  is  no  one  in  the  world  as  well  off  as  he  is; 
but  I  do  wish  to  exclaim  with  all  the  emphasis  of  printed 
words  that  dissatisfaction  is  one  of  the  pre-eminent 
elements  of  failure. 

Perfection  is  impossible  in  business  or  out  of  it. 
Conditions  are  never  wholly  right.  The  ideal  environ- 


128  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

ment  is  seen  by  the  man  of  vision,  and  he  has  never  been 
able  to  materialize  it.  On  either  side  is  trouble,  often 
real,  sometimes  imaginary.  There  is  no  straight  road 
from  anywhere  to  somewhere,  nor  is  there  any  road-bed 
smooth  and  even  or  easy  to  travel  upon. 

Sensible  and  well-founded  dissatisfaction  may  help  one 
to  rise,  but  general  dissatisfaction  either  wounds  or  kills. 

If  you  are  dissatisfied  with  your  present  position 
more  than  in  spots,  or  now  and  then,  there  is  something 
the  matter  with  you,  or  there  is  something  the  matter 
with  your  position,  or  there  is  something  the  matter 
with  both.  It  is  your  duty  to  find  out,  and  to  make  the 
discovery  with  all  reasonable  speed. 

If  you  are  to  blame,  get  this  feeling  of  dissatisfaction 
out  of  you  at  any  cost.  If  you  are  not,  either  adapt 
yourself  to  conditions  or  get  out.  Do  not  remain  in 
any  atmosphere  reeking  with  insurmountable  diffi- 
culties. The  brave  soldier  never  stands  upon  sinking 
ground.  It  is  more  noble  to  run  away  than  it  is  to 
attempt  to  stand  firmly  on  nothing.  But  a  large  per- 
centage of  the  dissatisfaction  felt  by  the  employee  may 
be  in  his  own  imagination  or  is  of  much  thinner  quality 
than  he  thinks  it  is. 

The  majority  of  employees  join  the  ranks  of  the 
" Knockers"  when  they  enter  business.  They  are  sur- 
rounded by  earlier  "Knockers,"  —  men  who  are  dis- 
satisfied, because  they  are  not  strong  enough  to  be 
satisfied,  and  who  build  mountains  out  of  the  sand  that 
they  may  stumble  over  their  self-made  handicaps. 


THE  KNOCKER  129 

These  "Knockers"  are  always  in  evidence,  —  in  the 
store,  behind  the  counter,  and  on  the  road.  They  are 
busier  finding  fault  than  they  are  correcting  faults. 
They  labor  harder  than  the  faithful  worker  does,  and 
actually  become  self-tired  from  doing  nothing  to  rem- 
edy anything.  They  are  the  microbes  of  failure,  greedy 
and  vindictive,  unwilling  to  injure  themselves  alone, 
but  desirous  of  bringing  every  one  else  to  their  level. 

Their  work  is  indifferently  done.  Their  ambition, 
if  they  ever  had  any,  is  reduced  to  the  minimum. 
They  come  and  go  by  clock,  and  would  never  be  on 
time  if  they  could  help  themselves. 

They  have  no  interest  in  anything,  not  even  in 
themselves.  They  are  not  in  favor  of  any  kind  of 
human  betterment,  any  kind  of  progress,  any  kind  of 
action,  except  the  ability  to  kick,  knock,  and  growl. 

They  would  not  be  tolerated  if  their  employers 
could  get  others;  but,  as  they  are  so  much  in  the 
majority,  and  as  they  can  be  made  to  do  stereotyped 
work,  they  are  hired  on  the  market,  stalled,  fed,  and 
driven. 

Much  of  the  unfairness,  and  even  cruelty,  practiced 
by  employers  would  never  have  occurred  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  "Knocker,"  who  cannot  be  considered 
as  a  man,  because  he  resembles  man  in  form  only. 

Some  employers  gradually  become  drivers  rather 
than  leaders  of  men.  I  am  not  excusing  them.  They 
should  know  better,  and  they  are  certainly  intelligent 
enough  to  discriminate,  but  as  I  am  addressing  this 


130  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

book  to  the  employee,  it  is  out  of  place  for  me  to  either 
praise  or  find  fault  with  the  other  fellow. 

A  reasonable  amount  of  self-satisfaction,  and  a 
general  satisfaction  with  surroundings,  are  absolutely 
necessary  for  business  success,  and  especially  for  the 
salesman. 

If  he  cannot  weather  the  breezes  of  the  present,  he 
will  be  wrecked  by  the  storm  of  the  future.  He  should 
throw  his  whole  heart  into  his  work,  and  he  cannot 
do  so  if  he  is  not  satisfied  with  himself,  with  his  em- 
ployer, and  with  his  business. 

Don't  be  a  "Knocker."  Look  for  the  good  things 
rather  than  the  bad  ones,  and  the  more  you  do,  the 
more  of  them  you  will  find,  and  the  more  of  them 
you  find,  the  more  insignificant  will  the  bad  things 
appear  to  be  and  the  less  they  will  affect  you. 

Overcome  dissatisfaction  with  satisfaction.  The  bed 
of  business  is  not  made  of  feathers.  The  "soft  snaps" 
you  hear  about  seldom  materialize. 

Business  is  business.  If  you  are  to  be  a  part  of  it, 
be  satisfied  with  it.  If  you  cannot  be  satisfied,  or 
reasonably  so,  get  out;  and,  perhaps,  you  will  not 
be  quite  so  big  a  failure  in  something  else;  but  the 
chances  are  that  you  have  little  in  you  of  the  stuff 
that  success  is  made  of. 

The  "Knocker"  knocks  himself,  and  his  knocking 
is  never  heard  inside  of  the  door  of  accomplishment. 


TELLING  THE  TRUTH 

IT  is  a  fact  that  a  proportion  of  salesmen  misrepre- 
sent the  goods  they  sell,  intentionally  or  unintention- 
ally, because  they  are  required  to  do  so  or  because 
they  are  laboring  under  the  delusion  that  it  is  easier 
to  make  sales  by  so  doing. 

For  the  moment,  let  me  disregard  the  moral  side 
of  truth-telling  and  give  no  consideration  to  the  right 
or  wrong  of  misrepresentation,  that  I  may  consider 
lying  exclusively  from  the  standpoint  of  business,  for 
then  I  may  commercially  justify  it  if  I  can  prove  it 
pays  financial  profit. 

Do  not  misunderstand  me,  and  do  not  for  a  fraction 
of  a  second  think  that  I  would  advise  any  one  to  lie 
or  to  misrepresent  in  business,  even  if  by  so  doing  he 
would  double  his  profits,  because  money-getting  is 
but  a  small  part  of  human  action,  and  the  loss  of 
self-respect  and  integrity  can  never  be  offset  by  any 
amount  of  financial  gain. 

The  liar  or  the  thief  in  business  and  out  of  it  may 
at  times  profit  by  his  rascality  so  far  as  financial  return 
is  concerned,  but  he  is  a  pitiful,  a  miserable,  and  a 
contemptible  fellow,  respected  by  none,  not  even  by 
the  herd  of  hirelings  who  smile  upon  him  and  are  but 
the  hypocritical  reflections  of  the  money  they  get  out 
of  him. 


132  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

But,  because  misrepresentation  plays  a  part  in  the 
business  of  the  world,  and  because  there  is  undoubt- 
edly reason  to  believe  that  lying  will  sometimes  bring 
financial  profit,  I  propose  to  discuss  the  truth  and  the 
lie  without  reference  to  the  moral  side  of  either  of  them. 

Does  it  pay  to  misrepresent  goods  or  to  otherwise 
lie  in  business?  Yes,  sometimes,  if  you  have  no  respect 
for  yourself,  if  you  have  no  conscience  and  sense  of 
honor,  if  you  do  not  expect  to  meet  the  customer 
again,  if  you  are  selling  fake  goods,  if  you  are  willing 
to  sacrifice  your  customer  after  the  first  sale,  getting 
out  of  him  all  you  can  and  getting  through  with  him 
then  and  there,  and  if  you  can  cover  up  your  mis- 
representation, so  whitewash  your  lie  that  its  blackness 
will  not  be  seen  until  the  sale  is  consummated,  then, 
and  then  only,  lying  becomes  a  business  commodity 
with  some  financial  value. 

But  if  you  are  in  business  to  stay,  and  consider  the 
first  sale  as  only  initiative,  the  beginning  of  profit,  the 
first  sowing  of  the  seed  intended  to  grow  an  everlast- 
ing harvest,  then  the  truth  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
profit  and  to  the  up-building  of  any  kind  of  a  busi- 
ness monument  which  is  not  likely  to  topple  and  fall 
when  the  winds  of  trade  blow  against  it. 

The  stores  which  last,  and  remain  permanent  suc- 
cesses, are  those  which  treat  the  customer  honestly  and 
fairly  and  look  upon  trade  as  a  mutual  exchange,  the 
seller  and  the  buyer  each  receiving  an  equal  advantage. 

The  salesman  should  represent  his  goods  as  they 


TELLING  THE  TRUTH  133 

are,  tacitly  admitting  that  he  is  selling  them  at  a  profit, 
but  at  a  price  which  will  be  satisfactory  to  the  buyer. 
He  does  not  pretend  to  be  in  business  for  the  fun  of  it. 
He  is  there  to  make  money.  But,  notwithstanding,  he 
is  in  a  position  to  benefit  the  buyer. 

Enthusiasm  is  to  be  encouraged,  that  which  comes 
from  honest  confidence  in  the  goods,  and,  at  times,  it 
may  border  upon  exaggeration;  but  this  may  not  be 
always  considered  commercially  dishonest.  Certainly 
one  has  a  right  to  be  enthusiastic  and  to  present  the 
best  side  of  the  story.  But  if  this  exaggeration  or 
enthusiasm  is  carried  beyond  reasonable  bounds,  and 
the  best  side  of  the  goods  is  presented  to  cover  up  the 
bad  side,  the  customer  will  sooner  or  later  get  at  the 
truth  of  it  and  will  not  be  "at  home"  the  next  time 
the  salesman  calls. 

Successful  salesmanship  consists  in  not  only  selling 
the  goods  to  the  profit  of  the  seller,  but  to  the  profit 
of  the  buyer.  Both  must  be  satisfied.  Otherwise 
trade  cannot  be  continuous. 

Of  course,  there  are  concerns  which  continue  in 
business  and  succeed  by  every  form  of  sharp  practice. 
They  misrepresent  continuously.  Their  salesmen  are 
known  as  liars  and  their  goods  are  unreliable.  Occa- 
sionally they  hold  a  customer  for  a  while,  but  not 
often.  Most  of  them  fail,  and  some  of  them  make 
money  by  so  doing.  They  succeed  by  taking  fearful 
risks.  They  are  gamblers  and  cheats,  and  when  they 
win  they  do  so  because  they  have  struck  the  luck  of 


134  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

the  charlatan.  No  matter  how  successful  they  may 
appear  to  be,  or  really  are  for  the  time  being,  back  of 
their  business  is  absolutely  no  good-will,  no  reputation, 
no  asset  beyond  the  cost  of  their  goods. 

There  is  a  class  of  buyers,  store-keepers  and  the 
like,  who  are  willing  to  take  chances,  to  play  an  unfair 
game  of  business,  and  there  are  many  retail  buyers 
who  pride  themselves  on  their  sharpness.  These  people 
will  occasionally  trade  at  a  questionable  store.  They 
like  to  play  the  game,  but  when  it  comes  to  buying 
something  worth  while  they  go  to  a  reliable  concern. 

This  class  of  trade  has  little  permanent  value.  It 
runs  at  high  pressure,  is  controlled  by  chance,  whims, 
and  the  gambling  instinct,  and  is  subject  to  leaks 
and  accidents. 

I  am  aware  that  some  sales-people  connected  with 
large  establishments,  and  some  of  those  on  the  road, 
are  ordered  to  misrepresent  their  goods.  They  must 
do  it  or  get  out.  If  you  are  connected  with  one  of 
these  concerns,  and  have  any  respect  for  yourself,  and 
desire  to  make  a  permanent  success,  it  is  your  moral 
and  business  duty  to  resign  at  the  first  opportunity. 

Connect  yourself  with  a  reliable  house,  if  you  would 
succeed.  Unless  you  can  inspire  your  customer  with 
confidence  in  you  and  in  your  goods,  you  cannot  con- 
tinue to  do  business  with  him. 

One  permanent  customer  is  worth  many  transient 
buyers. 

One  of  the  great  fundamental  elements  of  successful 


TELLING  THE  TRUTH  135 

salesmanship  is  the  salesman's  ability  to  inspire  the 
buyer  with  confidence.  This  is  impossible,  except 
transiently,  unless  the  salesman  is  honest  with  the 
buyer.  Take  confidence  out  of  salesmanship  and  you 
have  turned  the  business  mart  into  a  den  of  gamblers. 
Without  confidence  there  can  be  no  business  except 
the  barter  of  savagery. 

No  salesman  ever  succeeded  who  did  not  inspire 
confidence,  and  there  is  absolutely  no  way  of  creating 
it  except  by  honesty  and  by  always  telling  the  truth. 

I  am  not  claiming  that  all  business-doing  is  honest. 
I  must  admit  that  dishonesty  and  misrepresentation 
seem  to  have  become  a  part  of  the  great  fabric  of 
trade,  but  the  dishonesty  which  has,  or  seems  to  have, 
a  permanent  commercial  value  is  confined  to  methods, 
to  policies,  to  unfair  competition,  and  to  illegal  con- 
solidation. And  these  very  law-breaking  concerns  in 
their  dishonesty  of  method  demand  strict  honesty  on 
the  part  of  their  salesmen,  both  to  themselves  and  to 
their  customers,  and  they  refuse  to  misrepresent  their 
goods,  not  because  of  conscience  or  of  morality,  but 
from  business  policy.  They  know  that  they  cannot 
continue  to  do  profitable  business  if  their  salesmen 
misrepresent  or  lie.  They  realize  that  they  are  more 
dependent  upon  the  customer  than  is  the  customer 
dependent  upon  them.  They,  therefore,  although  per- 
meated with  dishonesty,  are  honest  to  their  customers. 

The  business  liar  is  sure  to  be  discovered,  and  that 
being  the  case,  lying  is  not  a  selling  asset. 


136  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

The  truth-telling  salesman,  the  confidence-inspirer, 
usually  succeeds.  The  life  of  a  lying  salesman  hangs 
by  a  thread,  sure  to  break  at  the  slightest  strain. 

If  your  present  position  prevents  you  from  telling 
the  truth,  make  a  change.  You  can  never  succeed 
where  you  are  unless  you  are  willing  to  take  gamblers' 
chances,  to  be  satisfied  with  present  profit,  and  to  get 
along  without  a  permanent  name  and  reputation. 

Honesty  is  the  only  safe  business  policy  for  those 
who  would  stay  in  business. 


MODESTY  IN  SELLING 

WHILE  modesty  is  a  prime  and  fundamental  virtue, 
which  is  not  likely  to  be  over-cultivated  or  developed, 
by  itself  alone  it  has  little  intrinsic  business  value, 
and  an  over-abundance  of  it  prevents  success-making 
and  is  fatal  to  good  salesmanship. 

Those  who  pride  themselves  upon  their  modesty 
usually  possess  the  least  of  it,  for  the  self-gratification 
that  accompanies  modesty,  if  such  a  condition  is 
possible,  is  the  worst  kind  of  modesty. 

It  is  difficult  to  draw  the  line  between  self-respect 
and  self-conceit.  They  naturally  dove-tail,  and  we 
are  not  likely  to  have  either  in  its  pure  state. 

Because  we  do  not  know  ourselves,  we  are  unable 
to  completely  separate  self-respect,  with  its  accompany- 
ing modesty,  from  self-conceit;  nor  does  there  appear 
to  be  any  particular  need  of  producing  this  separation 
to  the  fineness  of  a  chemical  analysis. 

Too  much  genuine  self-respect  is  impossible.  An 
over-abundance  of  self-conceit  is  not  only  objection- 
able, but  disastrous. 

I  have  never  known  any  man  of  achievement,  from 
the  star-gazer  to  the  grocer,  who  was  not  conceited, 
to  an  extent,  at  least.  His  command  of  self  and  his 


138  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

strong  mental  poise,  while  not  opposed  to  true  modesty, 
carry  with  them  sufficient  self-respect  to  run  over  into 
self-conceit. 

Commercially  speaking,  some  self-conceit,  well  mixed 
with  self-respect  and  flavored  with  modesty,  is  by  no 
means  an  unbusinesslike  asset;  and  it  will  be  a  part 
of  business  success,  until  we  have  become  fully  civilized. 

The  over-modest  man  does  not  succeed  in  selling 
goods.  He  who  is  afraid  of  himself  as  well  as  of  others 
is  doomed  to  failure. 

True,  the  thoroughly  conceited  man  is  as  badly  off 
as  is  the  man  of  over-flowing  modesty,  the  difference 
between  the  two  being  that  the  former  is  an  objec- 
tionable failure,  while  the  latter  is  a  harmless  one. 

Knowledge  of  any  kind  breeds  self-respect.  If  it 
does  not,  it  is  not  real  knowledge;  and  those  who 
really  know  things  are  not  likely  to  be  self-opinionated. 

Modesty,  then,  may  interfere  with  proper  self- 
respect,  by  throwing  knowledge  out  of  balance,  making 
it  ineffective;  while  proper  self-respect  uses  it  as  a 
building-block,  or  as  a  stepping-stone,  or  for  some 
other  part  of  the  structure  of  achievement. 

If  you  are  abnormally  modest,  afraid  of  yourself, 
and  have  little  respect  for  yourself  or  for  your  work, 
shun  the  selling  side  of  business.  Really,  there  is  no 
place  on  the  business  earth  for  you;  certainly  none  as 
a  seller  of  goods. 

Yet  beware  of  self-conceit.  If  you  have  it,  or  mis- 
trust that  you  have  it,  so  mix  it  into  the  flour  of 


MODESTY  IN  SELLING  139 

self-respect  that  it  may  be  kneaded  into  acceptable 
bread. 

Hold  on  to  self-respect  as  you  would  to  a  life-pre- 
server. It  will  buoy  you  up  when  it  is  calm,  and  hold 
you  up  in  a  storm.  Without  it,  you  can  do  nothing, 
certainly  you  cannot  sell  goods. 

Do  not  despise  modesty,  but  do  not  make  a  specialty 
of  it  while  on  the  road  or  behind  the  counter. 

You  hear  much  talk,  and  most  of  it  is  but  the  sound 
of  a  rattle,  about  the  pronounced  and  conspicuous 
modesty  of  great  men,  that  they  are  retiring  and 
really  do  not  care  to  receive  their  deserts.  These  men 
simply  appear  to  be  what  you  may  think  they  are, 
but  down  in  their  hearts  is  a  definite  self-respect,  a 
reaching  out  for  what  belongs  to  them,  without  which 
they  could  not  have  become  great  or  even  half-pros- 
perous. They  may  be  over-modest  in  the  things  they 
do  not  care  about,  but  they  are  like  a  solid  wall  when 
it  comes  to  the  things  they  love  and  practice. 

The  self-respect  and  proper  confidence  of  the  sales- 
man extend  to  the  goods  he  sells. 


COURTESY  AND  POLITENESS 

THE  terms  courtesy  and  politeness  apparently  more 
than  really  are  synonymous.  Politeness  is  somewhat 
shallow,  and  its  quality  may  not  be  deeper  than  the 
surface.  Courtesy,  on  the  other  hand,  may  be  but  a 
veneer,  but  it  should  be  made  of  sterner  and  more 
substantial  stuff.  An  action  of  courtesy  may  give  one 
something,  and  be  of  material  benefit,  both  to  giver 
and  receiver,  while  politeness  may  not  be  more  sub- 
stantial than  a  contribution  to  transient  pleasure. 

Some  sales-managers  consider  courtesy  as  the 
greatest  essential  to  successful  salesmanship. 

A  friend  of  mine,  who  has  profitably  managed  hun- 
dreds of  salesmen,  and  who  is  recognized  as  one  of 
the  best  sales-directors  in  the  country,  told  me,  with- 
out qualification,  that  he  considered  courtesy  of  more 
value  in  selling  goods  than  even  a  knowledge  of  the 
goods  and  the  ability  to  properly  present  them. 

I  am  not  prepared  to  agree  with  him  to  this  extent. 
I  think  he  is  placing  upon  courtesy  a  burden  greater 
than  it  can  bear,  but  I  do  believe  that  no  one  can 
succeed  in  selling  goods,  be  better  than  an  ordinary 
salesman,  who  is  not  both  courteous  and  polite,  and 
who  does  not  consider  these  attributes  essential  selling 
assets. 


COURTESY  AND  POLITENESS         141 

I  present  two  concrete  examples,  both  coming 
within  my  immediate  experience: 

Some  time  ago  I  made  a  trans-continental  trip. 
The  night  before  my  arrival  home,  most  of  the  men 
in  one  of  the  sleepers  gathered  in  the  smoking  compart- 
ment, told  stories  and  swapped  experiences.  A  gentle- 
man, with  a  strong  face  which  showed  determination 
well-balanced  with  great  experience,  acted  as  a  sort  of 
chairman. 

My  turn  came,  and,  among  other  things,  I  gave  the 
names  of  the  railroads  over  which  I  had  traveled. 

Interrupting,  the  chairman  asked  me  how  I  was  im- 
pressed with  the  conduct  of  the  A.  &  B.  and  B.  &  C. 
Railroads. 

I  told  him  that  I  proposed  to  be  a  sort  of  walking 
advertisement  for  the  A.  &  B.,  to  speak  in  the  highest 
terms  of  its  equipment,  its  management,  and  the  terri- 
tory through  which  it  passed.  But  I  added  that  its 
trains  were  over-crowded,  some  of  the  supply-cars 
failed  to  connect  with  the  diners,  and  that  I  had 
difficulty  in  obtaining  my  meals  regularly  and  sleeping 
accommodations. 

"Then  why  do  you  speak  so  well  of  it?"  the  chairman 
asked. 

"I  will  tell  you  why,"  I  replied.  "As  a  stranger,  I 
called  at  the  office  of  this  railroad  in  a  distant  city,  and 
made  inquiries  as  to  the  best  trains  to  take  and  the 
best  places  to  stop  over  at,  that  I  might  not  miss  the 
best  scenery.  A  middle-aged  man,  with  a  pleasant 


142  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

face,  not  only  greeted  me  as  a  friend,  but  he  came  from 
back  of  the  counter  and  treated  me  as  though  I  were  a 
personage  of  considerable  consequence.  He  brought 
another  official  to  his  assistance.  With  painstaking  care 
he  imparted  information.  His  intentions  were  good, 
and  he  did  his  best  to  please  me,  but  he  made  two  or 
three  errors,  which  affected  my  enjoyment.  These 
mistakes  were  natural  and  excusable,  but  I  pardoned 
him,  not  because  his  errors  were  excusable,  but  because 
of  his  friendly  interest  and  his  magnificent  courtesy 
and  politeness. 

"There  were  annoyances  all  along  the  line  on  account 
of  over-crowding;  but  I  stood  them,  and  made  no  com- 
plaint, because  everybody,  from  the  conductors  to  the 
brakemen,  seemed  to  have  singled  me  out  for  especial 
courtesy,  while,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  other  passengers 
were  treated  as  well  as  I  was." 

"How  did  you  like  the  B.  &  C.  Railroad?"  inquired 
the  chairman. 

"It  gave  me  the  best  accommodations,"  I  replied. 
"The  equipment  was  perfect,  its  trains  were  on  time; 
in  fact,  I  enjoyed  luxuries  equal  to  the  best  hotels. 
But,"  I  added,  "I  would  not  go  over  that  road  again 
unless  I  had  to." 

"Why?"  inquired  the  chairman  in  amazement. 

"Because,"  I  answered,  "several  of  its  officials  were 
post-graduates  of  the  College  of  Extreme  Hoggishness. 
As  a  gentleman  I  entered  their  office  that  I  might  ob- 
tain information  and  sleeping-car  accommodations.  I 


COURTESY  AND  POLITENESS          143 

was  treated  with  every  discourtesy,  even  bordering 
upon  insult.  An  inquiry  showed  that  this  lack  of 
courtesy  was  almost  universal." 

Summing  up,  I  claimed  that  courtesy  was  one  of  the 
business  and  railroad  assets;  that  the  traveler,  or 
everybody  else,  would  stand  any  unintentional  annoy- 
ances if  he  received  good  wholesome  courtesy;  that  he 
disliked  doing  business  with  a  man  who  was  technically 
all  right,  but  who  lacked  good-heartedness  and  whose 
speech  and  manner  were  as  automatic  and  as  hollow 
as  the  tones  of  a  cracked  talking  machine. 

The  chairman  sat  in  silence  for  several  minutes. 
Then,  extending  his  hand,  he  took  mine  with  a  fervent 
grasp. 

"My  friend,"  he  said,  "you  have  expressed  a  great 
business-getting  and  business-holding  truth.  Courtesy, 
on  the  part  of  a  railroad  official,  as  well  as  upon  that 
of  all  business-getters,  is,  I  believe,  vitally  essential. 
Will  you  exchange  cards  with  me?" 

I  handed  him  my  card  and  received  his  in  return. 
When  I  had  glanced  at  it,  he  smiled  and  said: 

"You  didn't  know  that  you  had  been  talking  with 
the  general  passenger  agent  of  the  discourteous  road, 
but  I  believe  that  you  told  the  truth,  and  I  thank  you 
for  it.  When  I  get  back  to  my  office,  I  shall  stand  in 
the  middle  of  it  and  read  the  riot  act,  and  there  will 
be  changes,  and  mighty  quick  ones,  too." 

In  a  certain  city  there  are  two  vaudeville  houses,  one 
with  a  maximum  charge  of  a  dollar  and  the  other  of 


144  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

fifty  cents.  The  grade  of  performance  is  practically 
the  same,  and  often  the  lower-priced  house  presents  a 
better  bill.  The  dollar-house  has  become  an  institution, 
and  there  is  seldom  a  vacant  seat  in  its  auditorium. 
The  fifty-cent  house  has  changed  hands  several  times, 
and  frequently  the  actors  play  to  fifty  per  cent  of 
empty  benches. 

When  you  enter  one  of  the  houses  you  immediately 
begin  to  breathe  and  feel  the  atmosphere  of  politeness, 
good-will,  and  courtesy.  Every  one,  from  the  ticket- 
seller  to  the  ticket-taker,  from  the  usher  to  the  water- 
boy,  treats  you  as  though  you  were  an  honored  guest. 
In  the  other  house  you  are  waited  upon  by  automatons. 

Here  are  two  institutions  practically  alike,  except 
that  one  carries  a  complete  assortment  of  courtesy  and 
the  other  presents  its  goods  without  trimmings. 

The  house  of  courtesy  has  made  a  fortune.  The 
house  without  it  has  had  a  checkered  career. 

The  foregoing  examples  apply  to  salesmanship  as  well 
as  to  the  running  of  railroads  and  theaters. 

Buying  is  serious  business.  It  means  an  actual 
outlay  on  the  part  of  the  buyer.  He  must  give  up  his 
money,  and  there  may  be  a  risk  in  the  transaction. 
Therefore,  it  must  be  made  as  easy  for  him  as  possible, 
and  everything  which  contributes  in  this  direction 
facilitates  a  sale. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  necessary  for  the  salesman  to 
assume  politeness  and  courtesy,  to  exercise  them  when 
he  does  not  feel  them.  This  is  not  hypocrisy,  and  there 


COURTESY  AND  POLITENESS          145 

is  neither  business  nor  moral  objection  to  it.  If  it  be 
hypocrisy  and  morally  wrong,  then  it  is  wicked  to 
veneer  the  piano-case,  or  to  varnish  the  outside  of  fur- 
niture, or  to  have  the  face  of  wall  paper  look  better 
than  the  other  side  of  it. 

Courtesy  and  politeness  may  be  called  the  sunshine 
of  trade.  Sunshine  is  much  deeper  than  it  appears  to 
be.  By  touching  the  outside,  it  warms  the  inside  also. 

True,  deep-felt  courtesy  and  politeness  may  be  im- 
possible, unless  they  are  reciprocated,  and  the  buyer 
may  not  always  reciprocate.  He  may  be  erratic  and 
morose,  even  to  the  disagreeable  point.  In  this  case, 
the  salesman  may  have  to  force  himself  to  be  courteous, 
but  he  should  do  it  anyway.  It  is  a  part  of  his  stock  in 
trade.  The  buyer  wants  it,  expects  it,  and  demands  it. 

When  it  is  difficult  to  be  courteous,  the  salesman 
should  school  himself  to  it,  that  he  may  realize  that  the 
giving  of  it  is  a  part  and  parcel  of  his  business,  as 
much  as  are  other  requirements.  If  he  is  not  naturally 
courteous,  he  must  learn  to  be. 

Over-politeness  and  simpering  courtesy  are  detri- 
mental. Even  the  childish  woman  does  not  want  to 
be  gushed  over,  and  any  attempt  to  do  it  will  result  in 
failure.  But  clean-cut  politeness  and  cordiality,  prop- 
erly Aogulated  and  well  presented,  are  definite  and 
positive  assets,  and  they  must  be  used  if  one  would 
sell  goods. 

It  is  never  difficult  to  give  them  if  one  is  naturally 
genial  and  when  they  are  appreciated  or  reciprocated; 


146  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

but  it  is  not  easy  to  use  them  before  a  snarling,  disagree- 
able, and  unreasonable  customer. 

It  is  not  easy  to  sell  goods.  It  is  not  easy  to  do  busi- 
ness. It  is  not  easy  to  do  anything  worth  doing.  But 
so  long  as  they  remain  a  part  of  selling,  they  must  be 
used,  and  used  judiciously,  if  one  would  hope  to  rise 
above  the  ordinary. 

If  you  are  not  naturally  courteous,  learn  to  be.  Learn 
it  as  you  would  any  other  science  of  business. 

Too  many  salesmen  simply  wait  upon  customers  in 
an  indifferent  and  negative  way,  antagonize  them  in- 
stead of  pleasing  them.  This  attitude,  —  this  lack  of 
courtesy,  —  drives  the  customers  to  another  store  or 
keeps  them  from  making  large  purchases. 

The  courteous  salesman  is  a  marked  man.  He  makes 
friends  in  the  store  and  out  of  it,  and  this  one  thing 
alone  lifts  him  above  his  fellows,  and  he  will  be  pro- 
moted more  rapidly  than  will  a  better  salesman  who  is 
morose,  indifferent,  and  who  lacks  the  essential  of 
business  courtesy. 


STICK-TO-IT-IVENESS 

ON  the  distant  horizon  of  fading  memory  I  think  I 
see  the  old  red  school-house.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  this 
particular  school-house  was  painted  white  and  yellow 
with  blue  trimmings,  but  popular  tradition  says  it  was 
red,  and  red  it  shall  be. 

I  see  the  typical  old-fashioned  school  committee-man, 
who  never  wore  a  coat  save  on  Sunday  and  school  visi- 
tation days,  when  he  took  out  his  one  boiled  shirt  with 
paper  cuffs  and  collar,  collated  them,  and  after  he  had 
shined  his  shoes  with  a  rag,  started,  cane  in  hand,  for 
the  one-room  house  of  learning. 

I  recall  many  of  these  addresses.  They  were  all  alike, 
and  seemed  to  have  been  written  with  the  same  pencil 
on  the  same  sheet.  They  began  in  the  usual  way.  Two 
great  big  pieces  of  advice  always  appeared:  first,  refer- 
ence to  our  friend  the  rolling  stone,  the  fellow  who 
never  seemed  able  to  attach  himself  to  any  moss;  and, 
secondly,  he  would  say:  "Boys,  stick  to  yer  jobs. 
Keep  at  it.  Don't  think  of  nothin'  else,  and  jest 
work  for  all  yer  worth,  and  every  one  of  yer  may  be 
Presidents." 

Now  I  am  not  taking  exceptions  to  this  old-time 
advice,  because  upon  that  meat  were  fed  the  men  of 
mark  of  to-day;  and  positiveness  of  statement,  whether 


148  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

it  be  fully  right  or  altogether  wrong,  seems  to  count 
in  the  rounding-up  of  effectiveness. 

Some  folks  have  to  be  told  what  to  do,  and  the  teller 
of  the  past  found  it  necessary  to  give  little  quarter. 
But  nowadays  we  are  supposed  to  think  out  our  prob- 
lems, and  the  fellow  who  cannot  do  it  for  himself  goes 
to  the  wall  and  stays  there.  Facts  are  facts,  even  if 
they  outrage  popular  tradition  and  bore  holes  in  our 
favorite  adages. 

Let  us  return  to  our  rolling  stone.  It  is  not  true  that 
every  man  of  change  is  predestined  to  failure.  There 
are  thousands  of  instances  of  men  of  constant  change, 
who  have  tackled  many  jobs  and  who  are  financial 
successes.  Therefore,  it  is  wrong  to  place  the  change- 
able man  in  a  world  of  utter  darkness,  and  to  claim 
that  he  can  never  see  the  rising  of  the  sun  of  success. 

Yet  it  is  nevertheless  a  fact  that  there  is  absolutely 
no  evidence  to  prove  that  the  rolling  stone  would  not 
have  been  better  off  if  he  had  given  up  his  rolling  and 
remained  in  one  place  and  stuck  to  one  kind  of  work. 

It  is  also  a  fact  that  a  large  proportion  of  successful 
men  have  made  comparatively  few  changes  in  their 
business  life.  They  may  not  have  remained  with  the 
same  firm  that  they  started  in  with,  but  they  did  not 
make  a  material  change  from  the  kind  of  business  they 
began  with.  If  their  initial  position  was  in  a  shoe  store, 
they  remained  in  the  shoe  business.  If  they  took  up 
engineering,  they  did  not  travel  far  away  from  mechan- 
ical headquarters.  They  chose,  wisely  or  unwisely,  the 


STICK-TO-IT-IVENESS  149 

kind  of  work  they  would  do  and  stuck  to  it,  subject  to 
occasional  change  of  base,  but  not  often  to  change  of 
vocation. 

Probably  half  of  us  start  wrong,  that  is,  we  do  not 
choose  the  line  we  are  best  fitted  for,  largely  because 
we  make  little  effort  to  diagnose  the  business  future. 
We  take  the  first  job  which  presents  itself.  If  we  are 
adapted  to  the  business,  we  succeed;  but  if  we  are 
better  fitted  for  some  other  line,  our  top  notch  of  pos- 
sible success  is  never  reached. 

Would  I  advise  the  man  who  has  started  wrong  to 
make  a  change  of  business  base,  even  after  he  had 
remained  a  long  time  in  his  chosen  vocation? 

Yes,  if  he  is  sure  that  he  is  on  the  wrong  track  and 
can  afford  to  make  the  change. 

Sometimes  one  cannot  change  from  the  wrong  road 
into  the  right  one.  He  is  too  old,  carries  too  many 
responsibilities,  and  must  remain  where  he  is,  accom- 
plishing little,  yet  all  the  time  knowing  that  he  started 
on  the  wrong  road  and  is  still  following  it. 

But  if  one  has  started  wrong,  and  knows  it,  he  should 
correct  the  mistake  at  the  earliest  opportunity,  pro- 
vided he  can  do  so  without  undue  sacrifice. 

Upon  general  principles,  where  we  are  is  the  best 
place  for  us  to  be,  unless  we  are  sure  it  is  not;  and  we 
cannot  be  sure  that  we  are  in  the  wrong  place  if  the 
only  evidence  we  have  is  our  bigotry  or  unsupported 
opinion.  If  we  are  headed  wrong,  somebody  besides 
ourselves  knows  it. 


150  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

Stick-to-it-iveness  is  a  great  business  asset.  Without 
it  the  chances  of  making  good  are  materially  reduced. 
Practically  all  of  the  men  of  successful  change  made  the 
moves  they  did  with  well  thought  out  reason.  They  did 
not  go  from  one  thing  to  another  until  they  had  weighed 
each  side  and  had  an  intelligent  reason  for  making  the 
change. 

All  of  us  do  not  have  the  same  opportunity,  and  a 
change,  or  several  changes,  may  be  advisable  for  one 
man,  while  another  has  no  excuse  for  not  sticking  to  his 
job. 

Mere  dissatisfaction  with  your  position  should  not  be 
taken  as  good  evidence,  or  exclusive  evidence,  in  favor 
of  leaving  it. 

Perhaps  you  are  naturally  dissatisfied  and  easily 
discouraged. 

You  know  the  outs  of  your  present  position,  and 
know  little  about  the  disadvantages  of  the  one  you  are 
seeking.  The  future,  unknown  to  you,  appears  brighter, 
simply  because  you  have  not  seen  the  dark  side  of  it. 
Every  position  has  its  "outs,"  and  some  vocations  have 
many  of  them.  Unless  you  are  sure  that  you  are  in 
the  wrong  place,  and  those  who  know  you  agree  with 
you,  you  have  no  right  to  seriously  consider  making  a 
change. 

When  in  doubt,  make  no  move  at  all.  Stay  where 
you  are,  and  stick  to  your  job,  unless  you  and  fair- 
minded  friends  can  discover  tangible  and  material 
reasons  for  advocating  a  change. 


STICK-TO-IT-IVENESS  151 

Let  us  suppose,  for  example,  that  you  are  connected 
with  an  old  established  concern,  too  conservative,  per- 
haps, to  suit  you,  a  house  which  is  doing  business 
somewhat  opposed  to  modern  methods.  You  do  not 
receive  rapid  promotion.  You  are  dissatisfied.  But, 
perhaps,  you  are  a  natural  fault-finder,  a  knocker,  and 
a  kicker. 

You  know,  or  think  you  know,  that  another  concern 
is  more  progressive  and  appears  to  offer  better  oppor- 
tunity. Would  I  advise  you  to  make  a  change?  That 
depends  upon  circumstances.  Would  another  house 
give  you  an  equally  good  position?  Would  the  newness 
of  your  work,  and  the  change  of  environment,  operate 
against  you?  Would  you  not  be  better  off  with  the  old 
conservative  concern  you  are  with  if  you  exerted  your- 
self to  the  utmost?  If  you  enter  this  new  and  progres- 
sive house,  will  you  not  find  yourself  under  the  strain 
of  greater  competition?  How  will  your  ability  compare 
with  that  of  the  hustlers  and  pushers  you  will  have  to 
compete  with? 

Upon  general  principles,  stay  where  you  are,  and 
stay  anyway,  unless  you  are  sure  that  a  change  is  advis- 
able or  necessary.  Thousands  of  successful  business 
men  began  as  office  boys  with  the  concerns  which  they 
are  now  commanding.  They  have  business  records  to 
be  proud  of. 

True,  their  experience  may  be  more  limited  than  that 
of  the  men  who  have  been  connected  with  several  firms, 
but  there  is  an  advantage  in  remaining  where  you  are 


152  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

and  of  moving  from  the  bottom  to  the  top  within  the 
same  environment.  Opinions  differ,  and  success  has 
been  meted  out  to  both.  But  a  change  of  business 
base  without  reason  tends  to  failure.  The  longer  one 
remains  in  a  place,  the  better  off  he  may  be,  provided 
he  is  offered  good  opportunity. 

It  is  unsafe  to  follow  the  advice  and  action  of  the 
great  generals  of  industry  or  of  men  of  extraordinary 
mark.  They  are  geniuses.  They  can  succeed  at  any- 
thing and  make  money  anywhere.  Throw  them  into 
the  sea  of  disaster,  and  they  will  float  ashore  and  market 
the  sea-weed  that  clings  to  their  feet. 

Until  you  become  a  great  genius,  it  is  safer  for  you 
not  to  wander  very  far  from  the  middle  of  the  road,  and 
to  study  the  experiences  of  men  of  ordinary  success, 
and  not  to  be  guided  by  those  of  great  exceptions. 

The  majority  of  successful  men  stuck  to  their  jobs 
until  they  were  forced  out  of  them  by  unavoidable  pres- 
sure, or  had  positive  evidence  that  they  were  occupying 
positions  of  failure.  But  none  of  them  changed  on 
account  of  purely  personal  dissatisfaction.  They  either 
stayed  where  they  were  or  moved  for  reason. 

The  majority  of  this  majority  never  learned  more 
than  one  kind  of  business,  and  they  stuck  to  that  busi- 
ness and  mastered  it. 

Nothing  sticks  to  the  man  who  does  not  stick. 


ORIGINALITY  IN  SELLING 

I  APPROACH  this  subject  with  fear  and  trembling, 
because,  however  much  I  may  strive  to  make  myself 
plain,  it  is  possible,  and,  perhaps,  probable,  that  I  shall 
be  misunderstood  by  some  of  my  readers.  If  a  misun- 
derstanding occurs,  it  is  likely  to  be  confined  to  an 
assumed  impression  that  I  do  not  give  originality  and 
invention  the  positions  they  deserve  in  the  business 
world. 

Let  me  say,  therefore,  at  the  start,  that  I  do  not 
depreciate  the  quality  and  intrinsicality  of  good  and 
sensible  originality,  for  no  man  ever  makes  more  than 
small  success  at  anything,  from  selling  goods  to  doc- 
toring a  patient,  who  does  not  do  something  somewhat 
different  from  others.  The  man  without  originality  is 
merely  an  automaton,  —  a  machine,  —  and  the  little 
success  he  makes  is  purely  automatic.  He  resembles  a 
human  being  only  in  outward  appearance. 

Things  seem  to  move  in  cycles  or  in  epochs.  For  a 
number  of  years  conventionality  held  almost  almighty 
sway,  and  most  folks  did  as  others  did  before  them, 
looking  aghast  at  the  man  who  dared  to  travel  beyond 
the  edge  of  the  road  of  convention. 

Naturally,  reaction  set  in,  and  man  attempted  to 
jump  beyond  the  boundaries  of  caution  and  sense;  and 
originality,  or  what  masqueraded  under  that  name, 


154  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

became  almost  epidemic.  It  seemed  as  though  every 
one  was  trying  to  be  different  from  all  others. 

The  simplicity  of  art  twisted  itself  into  the  grotesque. 
Non-understandable  books  flooded  the  country.  Ad- 
vertising became  yellow.  Experts  rose  up  as  in  a  night 
and  offered  their  services  to  business  men,  guaranteeing 
to  do  something  different,  this  doing  differently  being 
paraded  as  their  only  asset. 

Conditions  are  changing  again,  and  we  are  getting 
back  to  simplicity,  not  to  the  conventionality  of  sim- 
plicity, but  to  real  simplicity. 

Yet  over-originality  and  the  erratic  are  still  alto- 
gether too  prevalent.  In  themselves  they  have  little 
or  no  commercial  or  selling  value.  To  be  different 
from  others  may  be  to  be  inferior  to  others.  An  over- 
stock of  forced  individuality,  or  of  hot-house-grown 
personality,  will  operate  against  the  salesman.  So 
long  as  the  world  is  partly  clothed  in  conventional 
garments,  it  will  refuse  to  accept  surprising  innovations 
with  alacrity,  and  no  man  of  business  can  travel  with 
safety  entirely  outside  the  road  of  convention. 

Our  business  assets  are  weighed  in  the  scale  of  cus- 
tom, and  what  we  do,  however  good  it  may  be,  is  of 
little  value  commercially  unless  it  is  recognized  and 
acceptable  to  those  we  do  business  with. 

The  over-original  salesman,  scintillating  with  bright- 
ness, may  not  be  as  successful  as  one  who  combines 
conventionality  with  his  originality,  using  enough  of 
each  to  better  impress  the  customer. 


ORIGINALITY  IN  SELLING  155 

The  smart  salesman  is  seldom  a  good  salesman,  for 
smartness  can  contribute  little  more  than  transient  result. 

Buying  is  serious  business,  and  any  attempt  at 
flippant  originality,  or  originality  above  the  compre- 
hension of  the  customer,  works  against  a  sale. 

Originality  has  a  selling  value  only  when  it  is  appre- 
ciated by  the  buyer.  If  it  is  so  bright  that  it  dazzles 
him,  so  high  up  that  he  cannot  reach  it,  it  is  not  worth 
half  as  much  as  is  well-balanced  conventionality. 

While  originality  should  be  cultivated,  and  while 
it  has  a  great  commercial  value,  it  should  be  safe- 
guarded with  caution  and  distributed  with  judgment. 

When  in  doubt,  do  not  be  original.  Be  matter  of 
fact  and  exact  always,  and  simple  too.  Display  your 
originality  as  a  sort  of  side  affair,  as  additional  sunshine, 
but  do  not  shed  it  where  it  is  not  wanted,  and  be  sure 
that  it  is  wanted  before  you  shed  it. 

Do  not  try  to  be  smart.  Do  not  attempt  to  be  pe- 
culiar. Do  not  be  radically  different  from  others  unless 
you  are  in  perfect  control  of  these  attributes  and  know 
how  to  distribute  them.  There  is  safety  in  the  middle 
of  the  road.  There  is  danger  at  the  sides,  and  there  is 
chance  for  disaster  beyond  the  boundary  line. 

The  great  salesman,  like  the  great  business  man, 
wins  by  taking  reasonable  chances,  but  it  is  not  safe 
for  you  to  copy  him  in  entirety.  He  has  succeeded  by 
the  exercise  of  his  enormous  ability  and  remarkable 
personality.  He  is  a  genius.  To  him  license  is  given. 

Until  you  become  truly  great,  you  had  better  pat- 


156  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

tern  after  those  in  the  middle  of  the  ranks,  for  they 
have  followed  accepted  principles  and  have  been  rea- 
sonably sure  of  each  step  before  their  feet  struck  the 
ground.  Study  their  methods  and  work  alongside  of 
them  if  you  can.  After  you  have  learned  the  rudiments 
from  them,  you  have  a  right  to  experiment,  to  bring 
your  originality  and  personality  to  the  front,  to  take 
chances,  if  need  be;  but  be  a  good  salesman  along  reg- 
ular lines  first  and  a  shining  star  afterwards. 

One  great  mistake  made  by  young  salesmen  and 
others  is  to  pattern  themselves  after  some  great  genius, 
some  man  of  remarkable  mark.  They  would  begin 
where  he  left  off.  Because  he  succeeded  by  doing 
certain  things,  they  would  do  the  same. 

The  experienced  captain  may  sometimes  steer  with- 
out a  chart,  and  he  may  diagnose  the  weather  without 
a  barometer,  because  he  is  both  a  chart  and  a  barometer, 
and  need  not  always  go  outside  himself  for  direction; 
but  the  fellow  underneath,  however  proficient  he  may 
think  he  is,  had  better  consult  the  conventional  chart 
and  the  automatic  barometer. 

No  man  ever  reached  greatness  in  salesmanship  or 
anything  else  at  a  bound.  He  has  no  right  to  consider 
himself  competent  to  act  as  a  genius  until  he  becomes 
one. 

Respect  fundamental  principles,  and  do  not  entirely 
ignore  conventional  and  acceptable  rules  and  regula- 
tions until  you  have  mastered  them  and  know  how  to 
straddle  a  comet  without  falling  off. 


ADVISING  THE  CUSTOMER 

SOME  advice  is  cheap,  and  much  worse  than  none  at 
all;  and  some  people  are  so  ignorant,  arrogant,  and 
self-opinionated  that  they  lack  the  ability  to  discrim- 
inate and  will  not  tolerate  the  semblance  of  a  suggestion. 

There  are  others  who  are  afraid  to  take  advice  be- 
cause they  have  played  with  advice-taking,  and  have 
lost. 

These  personal  experiences  have  done  much  towards 
convincing  some  folks  that  advice  is  worth  very  little, 
and  that  the  outsider  cannot  furnish  profitable  counsel. 

But  whatever  may  be  said  about  it,  and  whatever 
one's  personal  experiences  may  have  been,  advice  is  a 
marketable  commodity,  and  no  sensible  person  will 
object  to  receiving  suggestions  from  any  one  who  is 
supposed  to  be  familiar  in  the  premises. 

The  retail  salesman  is  supposed  to  know  more  about 
his  goods,  their  styles  and  wearing  qualities,  than  is 
the  customer  in  front  of  him.  He  is  in  touch  with  the 
goods,  sees  more  of  them  than  is  possible  for  the  cus- 
tomer to  see;  and,  if  he  is  at  all  intelligent  and  even 
moderately  interested  in  his  business,  he  has  informa- 
tion which  no  customer  is  likely  to  possess. 

The  traveling  man  may  not  know  any  more  about  his 
goods  than  does  the  buyer,  because  both  are  experienced, 


158  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

yet  the  salesman  sees  his  wares  from  a  different  view- 
point, and,  as  he  is  moving  from  place  to  place,  he  should 
know  some  things  about  selling  conditions  that  the 
buyer  may  not  be  as  familiar  with. 

The  good  traveling  salesman  is  a  sort  of  cyclopedia 
of  his  business.  He  cannot  help  gathering  information, 
and  what  he  has  learned,  or  has  come  in  contact  with, 
may  be  of  considerable  value  to  the  retail  merchant  or 
buyer. 

The  salesman  is  in  a  position  to  give  advice,  or  he 
should  be.  If  he  does  not  know  enough  to  intelligently 
advise  the  customer,  he  had  better  not  attempt  to  sell 
goods. 

The  customer  in  front  of  the  counter  will  gladly 
accept  advice  and  suggestions  from  the  salesman,  if  the 
salesman  knows  his  business  and  the -ad vice  given  is  of 
interest  to  him,  and  if  it  is  presented  in  a  modest, 
gentlemanly,  and  courteous  way.  No  customer  worth 
having  will  resent  good  advice  well  given.  In  fact, 
most  customers  expect  it,  and  some  of  them  demand  it. 

The  traveling  man  has,  perhaps,  a  better  opportunity, 
because  he  comes  in  contact  with  trade  conditions  all 
over  his  territory,  and  then  he  meets  his  customer  in 
more  of  a  social  way;  but  the  counter-man  will  find 
plenty  of  opportunity,  if  he  makes  an  effort  to  get  it. 

Many  successful  salesmen  have  become  the  confi- 
dential advisers  of  their  customers,  who  depend  upon 
them,  because  experience  has  proven  that  the  advice 
given  is  of  value.  The  salesmen,  who  can  give  honest 


ADVISING  THE  CUSTOMER  159 

and  profitable  advice  and  present  it  in  a  proper  manner, 
will  sell  more  goods  and  hold  more  customers  than  will 
he  who  attends  strictly  to  selling  and  to  nothing  else. 

All  of  us,  including  customers,  are  dependent  upon 
others,  need  others'  ideas,  especially  if  they  come  from 
experience.  The  salesman  has  this  experience,  because 
he  meets  so  many  people.  Therefore,  he  is  logically  in 
a  position  to  advise  and  suggest.  The  better  posted  he 
is,  the  more  valuable  is  his  advice.  If  he  knows  his 
goods,  and  the  use  of  them,  he  is  in  a  position  to  be  of 
great  benefit  to  his  customer. 

The  manner  of  giving  advice  is  as  important  as  the 
intrinsic  value  of  the  advice  itself.  Advice  hurled  at  a 
customer,  or  given  in  an  arbitrary  way,  irritates  him 
and  turns  him  against  the  salesman,  and  he  will  not 
accept  it  even  though  it  be  good.  The  salesman  must 
study  how  to  present  advice  and  suggestions,  so  that 
they  will  be  received  in  the  spirit  they  are  given.  They 
will  not  be  well  received  unless  they  are  of  benefit  to 
the  receiver. 

Of  course,  the  salesman's  main  object  is  to  sell. 
The  customer  knows  this,  but  this  need  not  make  the 
advice  less  valuable  or  less  appreciated. 

In  giving  advice,  always  tell  the  truth,  for  any  dis- 
crepancy on  your  part  will  react  against  you  and  the 
firm  you  work  for. 

If  the  customer  buys  something  wholly  on  account 
of  the  advice  given  him  by  the  salesman,  and  loses 
money,  the  salesman  is  in  a  peculiar  position,  and 


160  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

may  have  lost  the  customer.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  advice  has  been  profitable,  the  salesman  has  ob- 
tained a  business  friendship  which  will  materially  aid 
in  holding  and  increasing  his  trade. 

A  proportion  of  retail  buyers  purchase  through  ig- 
norance goods  which  will  not  be  satisfactory  to  them. 
They  do  not  know  how  to  make  selections.  They  do 
not  realize  that  what  pleases  them  at  first  sight  may 
have  no  lasting  quality.  Although  it  is  their  own  fault, 
they  are  likely  to  condemn  the  salesman  who  allowed 
them  to  purchase  what  they  asked  for,  and  not  to  think 
well  of  the  store  they  traded  with.  They  are  disap- 
pointed, and  they  want  to  throw  the  blame  upon 
somebody  else. 

The  man  behind  the  counter  should  not  occupy  an 
arbitrary  position.  He  must  not  force  the  customer  to 
go  one  way  or  the  other,  but  if  he  knows  the  customer 
is  making  a  mistake  which  is  sure  to  result  in  dissatis- 
faction, he  can,  if  he  be  a  good  salesman,  present  the 
case  quietly  and  politely,  and  in  such  a  way  that  the 
customer  will  really  follow  his  advice  and  yet  think 
that  he  is  making  the  change  of  his  own  volition. 

Many  a  buyer  desires  to  purchase  goods  in  too  large 
a  quantity,  or  goods  which  are  not  likely  to  sell.  The 
salesman  knows  this,  and  he  can  make  a  larger  sale  if 
he  says  nothing.  Generally,  it  pays  to  discuss  the  mat- 
ter with  the  buyer,  to  frankly  advise  him  not  to  pur- 
chase a  certain  line  or  to  make  his  order  larger  or 
smaller,  the  reasons  always  to  be  given.  This  is  friendly 


ADVISING  THE  CUSTOMER  161 

advice  as  well  as  mighty  good  business.  The  customer 
appreciates  it,  particularly  if  experience  proves  to  him 
that  the  salesman  is  right. 

There  is  no  reason  why  all  trading  should  be  cold- 
blooded business.  A  little,  at  least,  of  the  better  part 
of  human  nature  may  be  given  a  chance  to  show  itself. 
There  is  no  reason  why  the  average  sale  should  not  be 
a  mutual  affair,  of  equal  benefit  to  both,  nor  is  there 
any  reason  why  good-will  should  not  be  a  part  of  the 
negotiation. 

But  be  careful.  Do  not  give  advice  unless  you  are 
reasonably  sure  that  it  is  good,  and  that  it  will  benefit 
the  receiver.  Of  course,  you  cannot  be  positive  about 
this.  If  you  wait  to  be  absolutely  sure,  you  may  spend 
the  rest  of  your  life  in  waiting.  Just  be  reasonably  sure 
that  you  are  right,  then  present  it  to  your  customer  as 
you  would  to  a  friend  as  an  act  of  good-will,  and  be  so 
friendly  about  it  and  so  cordial  that  it  will  be  received 
in  good  part  and  appreciated. 

Usually  it  is  better  to  suggest,  or  to  appear  to  do  so, 
than  to  formally  advise,  for  a  suggestion  is  not  likely 
to  antagonize,  while  arbitrary  or  positive  advice  may 
not  be  always  well  received.  Here  is  where  experience 
comes  in.  If  you  have  good  judgment,  you  will  soon 
learn  how  to  do  it.  If  you  have  not,  you  will  have 
to  remain  an  automatic  salesman,  —  a  sort  of  slot- 
machine,  and  nothing  more. 


BEING  AFRAID  OF  YOURSELF 

I  HAVE  attempted  to  bring  out  the  selling  value  of 
confidence  under  the  chapter  heading  of  "Self -Confi- 
dence," but  a  few  words  about  the  opposites  of  it,  — 
fear  and  abnormal  reticence,  —  may  not  be  out  of  place. 

It  is  a  self-evident  fact  that  nobody  ever  succeeded 
in  doing  anything  above  the  ordinary  who  was  con- 
tinuously afraid  of  himself,  who  always  looked  for 
failure,  or  who  had  not  proper  self-confidence. 

It  has  been  said  that  one  of  our  greatest  generals 
won  his  battles  because  he  was  always  sure  of  victory 
and  did  not  seem  to  know  when  he  was  beaten. 
But  I  do  not  feel  like  going  so  far  as  to  unqualifyingly 
commend  the  man  who  does  not  know  when  he  is  down, 
for  when  one  is  certain  that  he  is  vanquished,  real 
bravery  justifies  retreat.  Only  the  fool  kicks  against 
the  pricks  that  he  cannot  remove  from  his  path. 

But  the  man  who  is  continuously  afraid  of  himself, 
and  is  forever  looking  for  failure,  usually  finds  it. 
While,  on  the  other  hand,  he  who  possesses  proper 
bravery,  and  is  continually  looking  for  success,  expect- 
ing to  find  it,  may  not  always  reach  it,  but  he  is  more 
likely  to. 

Some  people  have  a  shrinking  disposition.  They  are 
afraid  of  the  dark,  and  tremble  in  the  twilight.  They 
cannot  seem  to  hold  themselves  together,  to  protect 


BEING  AFRAID  OF  YOURSELF         163 

themselves  against  obstacles.  They  expose  their  vul- 
nerable parts,  and  invite  the  thrust  of  the  sword. 

Some  of  this  fear  is  pre-natal  and  natural  and  cannot 
be  wholly  overcome,  but  most  of  it  is  primarily  due  to 
pure  and  simple  laziness,  to  an  unwillingness  to  stand 
up,  to  fight  hard  and  fair  whenever  occasion  requires. 

Let  me  give  a  word  of  caution  to  the  man  who  thinks 
he  is  brave,  and  who  may  not  be.  The  continuous  dis- 
play of  independence  is  not  bravery.  Looking  for 
trouble  is  the  act  of  the  fool,  not  of  the  man  who  is 
truly  courageous.  Bullying  is  really  cowardice.  To 
retreat,  when  all  hope  ahead  is  gone,  takes  a  higher 
grade  of  courage  than  to  stand  like  a  rat  in  the  corner 
and  fight  with  no  prospect  of  winning. 

Truly  brave  men,  in  business  and  in  every  other 
walk  of  life,  are  those  who  are  not  afraid  to  meet  oppo- 
sition, competition,  and  obstacle,  and  who  are  strong  in 
their  self-respect;  but  who  do  not  make  a  display  of 
their  bravery,  and  who  consider  retreat  at  the  right 
time  more  honorable  than  the  continuation  of  a  strife 
which  is  sure  to  lead  to  defeat. 

Fight  when  you  must.  Stand  your  ground  when  there 
is  something  to  stand  on.  Run  with  all  your  speed 
when  the  enemy  is  solid  against  you  and  your  firing 
line  is  broken  to  a  man.  Somewhere  else  you  can  set 
up  a  fortification,  which  may  stand  some  chance  of  re- 
sistance. But  do  not  make  a  specialty  of  running  away. 
Put  up  and  maintain  a  bold  front  when  there  is  a  fair 
fighting  chance  of  victory. 


164  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

There  is  no  reason  why  you  should  be  afraid  of  your- 
self. Remember  that.  Never  forget  it.  What  is  there 
in  yourself  to  be  afraid  of?  Nor  is  there  any  reason 
why  you  should  be  afraid  of  your  goods,  if  they  are 
marketable.  Nor  is  there  any  possible  reason  why  you 
should  be  afraid  of  the  customer.  He  is  not  dangerous. 
He  cannot  hurt  you.  You  have  a  recognized  right  to 
address  him.  Exercise  that  right.  Salesmanship  is  a 
part  of  business.  Go  in  and  win  if  you  can.  To  be 
afraid  is  to  lose. 


YOUR  COMPETITORS 

NOTWITHSTANDING  the  tendency  towards  monopoly 
and  the  rapid  growth  of  combinations,  comparatively 
few  selling  houses  are  in  exclusive  command  of  any  one 
commodity.  Competition  has  not  been  stifled,  except 
in  spots,  and  few  buyers  are  obliged  to  patronize  any 
one  house  to  the  exclusion  of  others. 

The  natural  trend  of  business  has  produced  standard 
qualities,  or,  rather,  many  grades  of  standard  qualities, 
and  about  everything  is  in  duplicate.  The  salesman  is 
likely  to  meet  competition  on  every  side,  and  generally 
his  competitor  is  selling  just  as  good  goods  and  at  the 
same  terms. 

There  exists  a  selling  policy,  employed  by  some  sales- 
men, of  attacking  the  competitor  at  every  opportunity 
and  of  strenuously  depreciating  the  goods  he  carries. 
Practically  all  level-headed,  far-seeing  business  men  of 
judgment  decry  the  practice  of  this  policy  and  instruct 
their  salesmen  to  leave  the  competitor  severely  alone, 
unless  forced  to  express  an  opinion,  and,  even  then,  they 
favor  speaking  well  of  the  competitor  and  of  the  goods 
he  carries. 

Nothing  disgusts  the  average  buyer  more  than  knock- 
ing a  competitor.  It  almost  invariably  shows  weakness 
on  the  part  of  the  salesman,  and  creates  a  suspicion  that 


166  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

the  competitor  and  his  goods  are  superior  to  the  one 
who  speaks  against  them  and  the  goods  he  carries. 

Running  down  the  competitor  is  far  more  likely  to 
do  him  good,  and  to  advertise  him,  than  it  is  the  sales- 
man who  is  so  foolish  and  unbusiness-like  as  for  a 
moment  to  imagine  that  talking  against  the  competitor 
can  have  other  than  boomerangic  effect. 

Either  speak  well  of  your  competitor  and  what  he 
sells,  or  say  nothing  about  him,  except  under  very 
exceptional  circumstances. 

In  selling  goods  it  is  better  to  be  an  affirmative  man 
than  one  of  negative  character.  Negatives  have  little 
selling  value.  Customers  prefer  to  listen  to  positive 
statements,  all  right  from  the  shoulder  of  truth,  and  the 
more  affirmative  they  are  the  better  they  like  them. 
Talking  against  the  "other  fellow"  is  of  negative  qual- 
ity, and  for  that  alone  it  is  out  of  place  in  selling,  to  say 
nothing  about  the  bad  policy  of  talking  against  anybody 
in  business. 

Mind  your  own  business,  and  let  the  other  man  attend 
to  his  business,  is  a  mighty  good  selling  policy. 


IRRITABILITY  IN  SELLING 

THE  perfectly  balanced,  equipoised,  always  calm,  and 
deliberate  individual  does  not  exist,  never  has  lived, 
and  never  will,  until  the  inauguration  of  Utopian  days. 

Extravagant  living  and  strenuous  business-doing, 
coupled  with  frequent  family  troubles  and  friction, 
make  it  impossible  for  any  one  to  be  other  than  irri- 
table at  times,  and  few  of  us,  probably  none  of  us,  can 
always  completely  control  it,  and  every  one  will  show 
it  now  and  then,  if  not  more  frequently. 

It  is  both  useless  and  absurd  to  demand  perpetual 
calmness  of  any  one,  or  to  advise  him  to  keep  his  irri- 
tability completely  within  himself.  Imperfect  human 
nature  and  conditions  are  opposed  to  anything  like  a 
perfect  state. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  strongest  personalities,  the 
brains  of  superlative  quality,  carry  the  greater  volume  of 
irritability;  and  that  ordinary  people,  traveling  con- 
ventional paths,  show  a  more  equitable  balance.  It 
does  not  matter  whether  this  be  true  or  not.  Certainly, 
it  should  not  be  cultivated  as  an  evidence  of  genius. 

The  great  man,  with  shabby  coat  and  frayed  trousers 
and  with  long  and  unkempt  hair,  may  accomplish 
much  in  spite  of  his  untidiness;  but  his  personal  care- 
lessness is  not  a  part  of  his  work.  It  handicaps,  not 


168  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

aids,  his  progress.  The  irritable  genius  may  succeed, 
because  he  may  have  sufficient  power  to  override  his 
misfortune. 

Because  the  greater  part  of  irritability  has  its  source 
in  the  immaterial  or  in  the  imagination,  it  can  be 
largely  overcome  or  regulated  to  a  considerable  extent, 
unless  one  is  suffering  from  chronic  neurasthenia. 
The  life  of  the  salesman  is  one  of  constant  friction. 
The  customer  is  often  unreasonable  and  irritable.  Be- 
cause he  is  the  buyer,  he  may  claim  the  right  to  do  and 
act  as  he  pleases.  He  may  cast  his  spleen  or  irritability 
upon  the  salesman,  unloading  it  upon  those  he  comes 
in  contact  with,  and  especially  upon  those  who  make  a 
request  of  him. 

It  is  useless  for  the  salesman  to  criticise  the  customer, 
to  question  whether  or  not  he  has  a  right  to  be  irri- 
table, so  long  as  the  buyer  will  do  what  he  wants  to  and 
will  not  allow  any  one  to  dictate  his  policy. 

So  long  as  selling  requires  the  exercise  of  a  request, 
and  so  long  as  the  seller  is  usually  more  anxious  to  sell 
than  is  the  buyer  to  buy,  the  salesman  will  be  obliged 
to  cheerfully  put  up  with  irritability  upon  the  part  of 
the  customer,  whenever  he  can  do  so  without  loss  of 
self-respect. 

It  is  possible  for  the  irritable  buyer,  even  in  his  un- 
happiest  moods,  to  profitably  buy  for  his  house;  but 
it  is  utterly  impossible  for  the  irritable  salesman  to 
present  goods  and  irritability  at  the  same  time  and  sell 
the  former. 


IRRITABILITY  IN  SELLING  169 

So  long  as  you  are  a  salesman,  you  will  have  daily 
opportunity  to  be  irritable,  and  perhaps  you  will  meet 
with  hourly  disappointment.  Every  time  you  fail  to 
make  a  sale  you  are  temporarily  disappointed,  perhaps 
disconcerted,  and  disappointment  breeds  irritability, 
and  this  irritability,  if  sustained  or  shown,  cannot  do 
other  than  interfere  with  your  selling  effectiveness. 

The  retail  salesman  is  especially  subject  to  irritation, 
for  the  consuming  customer,  the  one  who  buys  at  the 
store,  is  not  likely  to  know  goods  and  their  values,  or 
just  what  he  wants  or  must  have;  while  the  buyer  of 
goods  to  be  sold  again  is  a  better  judge  of  qualities. 
He  meets,  therefore,  more  unreasonableness,  and  the 
display  of  a  greater  lack  of  business  principles,  than 
come  into  the  every-day  work  of  the  wholesale  seller. 
This  unreasonableness,  and  often  unfairness,  will  con- 
tinue, and  there  appears  to  be  no  way  to  get  rid  of  it. 
But  if  one  accepts  conditions  as  does  the  mariner,  who 
is  always  prepared  for  a  storm,  he  will  not  be  so  much 
affected. 

Whatever  may  be  the  degree  of  your  irritability,  and 
however  difficult  or  easy  it  may  be  to  irritate  you,  you 
must  control  or  regulate  it  while  you  are  before  your 
customer,  or  you  will  miserably  fail  as  a  salesman. 

In  the  act  of  selling  it  is  absolutely  necessary  for 
you  to  show  good  nature  and  courtesy,  no  matter  what 
your  inside  feelings  may  be.  If  you  cannot  control 
your  irritability  for  a  time,  keep  away  from  your  cus- 
tomer, if  it  is  possible  for  you  to  do  so,  and  do  not  go 


170  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

back  to  him  until  you  are  in  control  of  yourself.  You 
may  have  a  thousand  excuses  for  being  morose  and 
discouraged,  and  all  of  them  may  be  good,  but  as  the 
customer  is  not  interested  in  your  personal  welfare, 
you  have  no  right  to  expect  his  sympathy  or  regard, 
unless  he  is  a  personal  friend.  You  present  yourself  to 
him  with  a  request  that  he  buy  something  of  you.  You 
take  the  initiative,  not  he.  He  is  not  on  sale,  you  are. 
As  you  want  his  money  more  than  he  wants  to  give  it 
to  you,  he  is  your  superior  for  the  time  being.  There- 
fore you  must  meet  him  in  a  way  that  is  satisfactory 
to  him. 

I  have  the  deepest  sympathy  for  men  in  trouble,  for 
men  with  physical  or  other  ailments,  which  keep  them 
constantly  on  edge.  They  are  indeed  worthy  of  all 
compassion.  But  business  is  often  cruel.  Little  of  the 
human  heart  comes  into  it.  It  is  a  hard  game  to  play. 
Its  action  does  not  seem  to  give  much  room  for  the 
nicer  things  of  life.  It  is  give  and  take,  and  take  and 
give. 

All  of  us,  both  buyers  and  sellers,  are  subjected  to 
the  influences  of  every  kind  of  environment.  It  would 
seem  that  expert  buyers,  men  who  do  nothing  else, 
would  buy  with  their  brains  without  the  intervention 
of  their  feelings,  and  that  it  would  make  very  little 
difference  whether  the  sun  shone  or  it  rained.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  from  ten  to  fifty  per  cent  more  goods  are 
sold  on  a  pleasant  day  than  are  sold  when  the  skies  are 
dark. 


IRRITABILITY  IN  SELLING  171 

I  am  not  referring  to  the  retail  business,  because 
folks  naturally  stay  in  when  it  rains,  but  to  the  pur- 
chases made  by  professional  buyers.  Thousands  of 
expert  salesmen  never  call  upon  the  buyer  when  the 
weather  is  unpleasant,  unless  conditions  are  urgent. 

Greater  and  better  sales  are  made  under  favorable 
environment,  and  the  salesman  is  one  of  the  creators 
of  it.  It  is  as  necessary  that  he  be  sunny  as  it  is  that 
the  day  be  bright. 

If  goods  cannot  be  rapidly  sold  on  a  stormy  day, 
how  can  the  salesman  expect  to  succeed  with  a  cloudy 
face  and  an  irritable  manner? 

Be  considerate  of  the  customer.  He  may  be  in  a 
more  difficult  position  than  you  are.  At  times  he  is 
puzzled  and  uncertain.  If  you  put  yourself  in  his  place, 
perhaps  you  would  show  more  irritability  and  indecision. 

Irritability  felt  interferes  with  good  salesmanship; 
irritability  shown  is  fatal  to  good  salesmanship. 


PERSONAL  HABITS 

PERHAPS  you  have  a  legal  right  to  do  as  you  please, 
provided  you  do  not  interfere  with  anybody  else;  but 
I  do  not  see  how  you  can  do  as  you  please,  if  what  you 
please  to  do  is  wrong,  without  affecting  somebody 
besides  yourself.  Therefore,  if  you  are  dissipated,  or 
have  bad  habits,  you  have  no  legal  right,  or  any  other 
right,  to  do  as  you  please,  or  as  you  have  been  doing, 
for  you  are  outraging  the  best  of  public  sentiment  and 
are  antagonizing  accepted  business  principles. 

I  am  aware  that  some  forms  of  dissipation  do  not 
seem  to  interfere  with  business-doing,. for  some  men  of 
bad  habits  make  money,  and  some  drunkards  keep 
their  financial  heads  above  water.  But  dissipation 
contributes  to  failure,  and  usually  gets  the  better  of 
the  man  who  practices  it. 

As  a  salesman,  you  are  under  three  definite  laws: 
the  law  of  right,  the  law  of  your  own  self-respect,  and 
the  law  which  says  you  shall  be  faithful  to  the  man  you 
work  for  and  do  nothing  to  discredit  him. 

The  first  is  the  most  important  of  all,  for  from  it 
spring  all  other  laws  and  rules.  It  is  the  law  of  prin- 
ciple, and  principle  is  the  highest  of  all. 

The  law  of  your  own  self-respect  is  not  of  minor 
importance.  The  drunkard  cannot  have  it.  The  man 


PERSONAL  HABITS  173 

of  bad  habits,  although  the  practice  of  them  may  bring 
him  transient  pleasure,  never  respects  himself,  and  this 
lack  of  self-respect  permeates  his  entire  system  and 
puts  a  brake  upon  his  progress. 

To  sustain  bad  habits,  when  you  are  in  the  employ 
of  another,  if  these  acts  interfere  with  your  effective- 
ness or  with  his,  is  as  dishonest  as  it  is  to  steal  money. 
You  are  misrepresenting  your  employer  and  are  a  dis- 
grace to  the  trade  you  are  in.  You  cannot  honorably 
accept  your  salary,  even  if  you  are  able  to  sell  goods 
successfully.  You  are  a  personal  and  business  disgrace, 
a  consummate  fool,  a  sort  of  perpetual  suicide,  wrong- 
ing yourself  and  everybody  you  come  in  contact  with. 

Your  personal  habits  are  a  part  of  your  business 
structure.  From  a  business  point  of  view  alone,  leav- 
ing the  moral  side  of  it  out  altogether,  you  have  no 
right  to  have  any  habits  which  will  interfere  with  your 
business  progress,  and  no  form  of  dissipation  can  pos- 
sibly be  to  your  benefit,  and  it  is  absolutely  sure  to 
work  to  your  detriment. 

Bad  habits  of  every  kind  undermine  health,  destroy 
self-respect,  and  handicap  effectiveness. 

Wholesome  diversion  does  not  require  any  form  of 
dissipation  for  its  realization.  The  men  who  enjoy 
themselves  to  the  uttermost,  and  who  are  best  fitted 
to  fight  the  business  battles,  are  those  who  are  ever 
careful  of  body  and  mind  and  who  refuse  to  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  anything  which  interferes  with  business 
or  social  progress  or  with  the  pulling  down  of  character. 


174  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

The  good  fellow,  who  is  respected,  and  who  sells  the 
most  goods,  does  not  do  it  with  the  aid  of  any  form  of 
dissipation.  The  dissipated  man  is  not  respected  even 
by  those  who  share  his  illegitimate  liberality.  Even 
bad  men  respect  and  honor  the  salesman  of  sterling 
character.  They  are  distrustful  of  the  fellow  who  does 
not  retain  his  self-respect.  A  drink  never  consummated 
a  sale  that  would  not  have  resulted  without  it.  You 
never  offend  a  man  by  not  asking  him  to  share  your 
dissipation. 

Good  personal  habits  are  business  assets  and  con- 
tribute largely  to  selling  success.  With  bad  habits  you 
may  succeed  to  some  extent,  but  the  flush  of  success  is 
never  yours. 


TAKING  AN  INTEREST  IN  YOUR  WORK 

IT  is  a  positive  fact,  admitting  of  no  qualification 
whatsoever,  that  no  high  grade  of  achievement  is  pos- 
sible unless  one  takes  an  active,  a  thorough,  and  a 
strenuous  interest  in  his  work. 

There  is  little  fun,  and  practically  nothing  worth 
while,  in  playing,  unless  one  goes  at  it  with  his  whole 
heart,  with  a  definite  object,  and  with  the  determina- 
tion to  have  a  mighty  good  time. 

Indifference,  either  in  play  or  in  duty-doing,  is  the 
microbe  that  eats  the  life  out  of  everything  it  comes  in 
contact  with.  No  matter  how  menial  our  work  may 
be,  how  disagreeable  or  how  discouraging,  we  accom- 
plish little  in  the  present,  and  practically  nothing  hi 
the  future,  unless  we  give  it  undivided  interest  for  the 
time  being,  at  least. 

Perhaps  a  small  amount  of  merely  mechanical  work, 
assuming  that  there  is  anything  solely  mechanical,  can 
be  done  with  indifference;  but  even  this  work  of  pure 
detail  lacks  finish  unless  interest  is  back  of  the  hand 
which  does  it. 

The  most  successful  men,  whether  sellers  of  goods 
or  not,  began  at  the  bottom,  and  they  were  as  much 
interested  at  the  start  as  they  were  at  the  finish.  What- 
ever they  did,  they  did  with  their  might.  The  boy  who 


176  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

does  not  take  an  absorbing  interest  in  the  mailing  of 
letters  or  the  sticking  on  of  postage  stamps,  or  makes 
drudgery  of  it,  or  does  not  consider  it  a  means  to  a 
better  end,  will  probably  never  succeed,  and  surely  will 
make  nothing  of  himself  if  his  attitude  towards  his 
work  does  not  undergo  a  change. 

Everything  worth  doing  is  worth  doing  with  a  will, 
and  is,  for  the  time  being,  a  vital  part  of  life,  and  there 
is  nothing  of  consequence  which  should  not  carry  inter- 
est in  the  doing  of  it. 

If  you  do  not  like  your  work,  either  learn  to  like  it 
or  get  something  else  to  do;  but  make  every  effort  to 
like  it  before  you  give  it  up.  It  must  not  be  considered 
drudgery,  no  matter  how  disagreeable  it  may  be  to 
you.  Even  the  least  of  things  are  stepping-stones  to 
better  things. 

Few  of  us  are  doing  exactly  what  we  want  to  do. 
There  are  objections  and  obstacles  all  along  the  line 
of  every  kind  of  endeavor,  and  we  may  like  one  thing 
better  than  another,  yet  be  obliged  to  do  that  which  we 
like  to  do  the  least.  But  for  all  that,  we  can  bring 
ourselves  to  be  interested  in  the  most  menial  labor, 
and  to  throw  our  heart  and  energy  into  the  acts,  which, 
for  the  time  being,  are  parts  of  our  work  and  lead  on 
to  better  things.  We  can  often  learn  to  like  what  we 
have  disliked  by  forcing  ourselves  to  take  an  interest 
in  it. 

No  salesman  ever  amounted  to  anything  who  did 
not  have  and  maintain  a  decided  interest  in  his  work, 


INTEREST  IN  YOUR  WORK  177 

who  was  not  interested  in  the  goods  he  sold,  and  who 
did  not  feel  a  personal  interest  in  the  house  he  worked 
for. 

Undoubtedly  it  is  difficult  at  times  to  respect  one's 
employer,  and  the  methods  of  some  particular  house 
may  not  appeal  to  the  employee;  but,  so  long  as  he 
retains  that  position,  he  must  give  to  it  the  best  there 
is  in  him  and  look  forward  to  a  change  for  the  better. 

Remember  that  where  you  are  is  likely  to  be  the 
best  place  for  you,  and  you  should  feel  that  way 
unless  you  have  positive  reasons  for  not  doing  so. 
Particularly  should  you  be  interested  in  the  house  you 
work  for,  and  feel  as  though  you  were  a  member  of  the 
firm,  that  you  are  a  part  of  a  mutual  interest.  Unless 
you  maintain  this  attitude,  you  will  be  of  little  use  to 
yourself  or  to  your  employer.  Your  interests  should 
be  interlocked,  unless  there  is  something  the  matter 
with  you  or  with  him. 

Be  sure  that  you  are  right  before  you  criticise  the 
man  you  work  for.  The  fact  that  he  is  in  command  of 
the  business  may  be  considered  as  evidence  that  he  is 
your  superior  for  the  time  being.  At  any  rate,  you  are 
commercially  his  inferior,  and  you  never  will  be  his 
superior  unless  you  respect  yourself  sufficiently  to 
respect  your  work. 

Before  deciding  that  your  house  offers  you  little  or 
no  opportunity,  go  into  executive  session  with  yourself, 
analyze  yourself,  watch  yourself,  and  make  sure  that 
the  bulk  of  the  trouble  is  not  in  you.  You  are  really 


178  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

working  for  yourself,  and  you  should  be  right,  whatever 
may  be  the  condition  of  the  house  you  are  with;  and 
you  cannot  be  right  if  you  are  not  doing  your  best 
with  heart  and  hand,  even  under  real  or  imaginary 
handicaps. 

If  you  are  positive  that  the  firm  is  to  blame,  —  and 
do  not  allow  your  unsupported  opinion  to  have  weight, 
—  get  out.  But  be  sure  of  your  ground  before  you 
make  the  move. 

Be  interested,  not  only  in  the  firm  you  work  for,  but 
in  your  associates.  Get  in  contact  with  them.  Learn 
of  them,  and  give  something  in  return.  Do  not  place 
yourself  upon  a  level  above  others  unless  you  are  sure 
that  you  are  superior  to  them.  If  you  are,  it  may  be 
better  to  keep  it  to  yourself  so  far  as  talking  it  or  show- 
ing it  is  concerned. 

Without  this  broad  interest  in  your  work,  you  will 
be  a  rattler  of  business,  a  disturbing  element  which 
only  makes  a  noise. 

If  you  cannot  obtain  this  interest,  if  you  continue  to 
be  dissatisfied,  and  are  unable  to  locate  the  trouble 
after  the  most  strenuous  effort,  salesmanship  is  un- 
doubtedly not  in  your  line,  and  I  would  advise  you  to 
go  on  the  farm  if  I  thought  you  would  make  a  success 
of  farming.  You  are  on  a  side  track  that  runs  into  a 
bumper  or  a  sand  bank.  You  are  not  getting  anywhere. 
Get  back  on  to  the  main  line  of  interest. 


TREATING  THE  CUSTOMER 

SOME  folks,  outside  of  the  selling  craft,  seem  to  be 
laboring  under  the  delusion  that  universal  treating  on 
the  part  of  the  salesman  is  necessary  to  success  on  the 
road. 

Although  the  doing  of  courtesy,  with  more  or  less  of 
what  is  known  as  treating,  is  quite  common,  it  is  not 
practiced  by  every  salesman,  nor  is  it  done  continu- 
ously by  those  who  employ  it.  Some  very  proficient 
men  stick  strictly  to  the  yea-yea  and  nay-nay  of  busi- 
ness-doing, and  neither  give  nor  receive  a  favor. 

Yet  there  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  any  moral  or  business 
objection  to  so-called  treating,  if  it  be  in  the  form  of  a 
courtesy  or  a  return  favor. 

Life  is  hard  enough,  anyway,  and  business  life  too 
strenuous  to  forbid  the  introduction  of  small  courtesies 
and  the  exchange  of  little  things  which  smooth  the 
business  way  and  which  add  much  to  commercial  as 
well  as  to  general  good-fellowship. 

But  treating  should  never  suggest  bribery.  If  it 
does,  it  is  fatal  to  continuous  success.  So  long  as  it 
remains  a  courtesy,  an  act  of  good-will,  it  has  com- 
mercial value. 

But  the  salesman  should  never  treat  the  customer, 
even  to  a  cigar,  at  the  first  interview.  Let  him  come  to 
business  and  stay  at  business.  But  after  the  prelim- 


180  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

inary  skirmish  there  is  no  objection  to  his  handing  the 
customer  a  cigar,  or  offering  to  do  a  minor  favor,  if 
he  is  reasonably  sure  that  it  will  be  considered  as  a 
simple  act  of  business  good-will,  and  will  not  be  taken 
as  a  bribe. 

Let  us  suppose,  for  example,  that  a  salesman  enters 
a  place  of  business  for  the  first  time.  He  does  not 
know  the  buyer.  Nothing  creates  a  worse  impression 
than  to  immediately  offer  something  like  a  cigar,  which 
at  the  time  is  little  else  than  a  bribe;  nor  should  he 
invite  the  buyer  to  dine  with  him  until  he  is  sufficiently 
acquainted  with  him  to  establish  a  sort  of  business 
friendship. 

If  the  salesman  is  a  baseball  enthusiast,  and  he  knows 
that  the  buyer  is  a  fan,  or  if  he  enjoys  any  other  sport 
or  form  of  diversion,  and  thinks  that  the  buyer  is  like- 
minded,  then  he  may  in  perfect  good  taste  invite  the 
buyer  to  accompany  him.  He  may  take  him  to  lunch 
or  to  the  theater.  He  may  even  send  him  a  box  of 
cigars,  if  the  buyer  expresses  satisfaction  with  the 
flavor  of  the  one  he  handed  him;  but  never  at  or  near 
the  initial  interview. 

The  safest  rule  to  follow  is  to  do  no  treating  until 
you  know  the  buyer,  and  then  to  treat  him  as  he  would 
treat  you,  a  sort  of  exchange  of  courtesy,  it  making 
little  difference  which  one  stands  the  expense. 

But  the  offering  of  any  courtesy  which  is  forced,  or 
appears  to  be,  or  is  obviously  done  to  buy  the  good-will 
of  the  buyer,  is  mighty  poor  business. 


TREATING  THE  CUSTOMER  181 

Of  course,  if  one  chooses  to  minutely  analyze  the 
fundamental  elements  of  courtesy  or  of  treating,  he 
may  discover  that  most  of  it  is  done  in  hope  of  a  reward, 
and  is,  therefore,  pure  selfishness,  and  not  a  part  of  the 
better  part  of  business-doing. 

What  if  it  is  tainted  with  selfishness?  What  if  it  is 
a  means  to  an  end?  If  it  accomplishes  a  result  without 
injuring  anybody,  and,  at  the  same  time,  makes  trading 
pleasanter  and  easier  to  do,  and  helps  to  create  and 
maintain  business  friendships  which  lead  on  to  better 
sales,  it  should  not  be  discarded. 

No  iron-clad  rule  can  be  laid  down.  No  first-class 
buyer  can  be  bribed,  but  the  buying  hours  can  be  made 
pleasanter  to  him. 

Simply  treat  him  as  you  would  a  friend,  and  as  a 
friend  would  treat  you.  To  do  more  than  that  is  bribery, 
to  do  less  than  that  may  be  business  foolishness. 


INDEPENDENCE  IN  SELLING 

THE  salesman  with  independence  written  all  over 
his  face  and  a  chip  on  each  shoulder  is  looking  for 
trouble  and  is  going  to  find  it.  So  long  as  he  maintains 
this  attitude,  he  will  remain  far  away  from  the  boundary 
lines  of  success. 

Nowadays,  many  of  us  think  altogether  too  much 
about  our  independence,  and  the  folks  who  have  the 
least  right  to  it  appear  to  show  the  most  of  it. 

This  desire  to  be  independent  has  become  almost 
epidemic,  a  sort  of  international  disease,  deathly  if 
chronic,  and  injurious  if  of  a  transient  duration.  Some 
of  us  forget  that  proper  self-respect  recognizes  others 
as  much  as  ourselves  and  that  real  civilized  independ- 
ence is  as  dependent  as  it  is  independent. 

Individual  man  amounts  to  mighty  little.  As  a  part 
of  a  composite  whole  he  is  of  almighty  importance; 
but  take  him  individually,  by  himself  alone,  he  is  no 
more  than  the  smallest  bubble  on  the  biggest  sea. 

The  more  ignorant  and  arrogant  the  man,  the  more 
he  talks  about  his  independence  and  the  more  he  de- 
mands what  he  refuses  to  give.  He  establishes  his  own 
methods  and  frames  a  self-made  code  of  principles. 
He  will  do  it  his  way  or  not  at  all.  He  considers  himself 
a  great  universal  IT.  If  any  one  opposes  him,  or  acts 


INDEPENDENCE  IN  SELLING          183 

differently  than  he  does,  he  either  condemns  him  or 
pities  him.  He  does  not  realize  that  pure  independ- 
ence grows  out  of  dependence. 

I  believe  in  self-respect.  The  man  without  it  is  a 
little  bit  worse  than  nothing.  But  the  man  who  prides 
himself  on  his  independence,  who  proposes  to  sell  goods 
his  way  without  thinking  of  the  customer's  way,  who 
believes  that  he  is  right  and  the  customer  wrong,  who 
is  opposed  to  the  policy  of  the  house  he  works  for  when 
it  is  an  honest  one,  is  unfit  to  meet  any  part  of  the  busi- 
ness world,  and,  when  he  does  meet  it,  he  is  beaten  at 
every  point.  This  sort  of  independence  is  false  inde- 
pendence, not  the  genuine  article,  and  the  exercise  of  it 
is  absolutely  fatal  to  any  kind  of  success  in  salesmanship. 

The  customer  has  as  much  or  more  rights  than  those 
possessed  by  the  salesman.  The  salesman  is  asking  the 
customer  to  buy  something,  and  he  is  more  anxious  to 
consummate  the  trade  than  is  the  customer.  The 
asking-man  is  always  dependent  upon  the  man  ad- 
dressed. This  position  does  not  mean  a  loss  of  self- 
respect,  or  anything  which  interferes  with  positiveness 
or  with  the  maintenance  of  a  good  honest  policy.  But 
the  independence  which  is  purely  personal,  and  which 
is  founded  only  upon  the  person  himself,  is  one  of  the 
greatest  obstacles  to  business-doing. 

The  majority  of  poor  salesmen  object  to  the  policy 
of  the  house  they  work  for,  object  to  discipline,  object 
to  being  told  anything,  and  are  particularly  opposed 
to  being  ordered.  They  feel  that  they  are  looked  upon 


184  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

as  dependents,  and  in  this  they  are  right,  because  they 
are;  but  the  trouble  is  that  they  do  not  accept  this 
condition  as  they  should,  and  they  chafe  under  the 
necessary,  and  often  kindly,  harness. 

While  many  a  business  house  is  weak  in  method  and 
wrong  in  policy,  the  chances  are  that  it  is  better  con- 
ducted than  it  would  be  if  it  was  managed  by  its 
employees. 

Practically  every  manager  of  salesmen  or  maker  of 
selling  policy  has  sold  goods  on  the  road  and  in  the 
store.  He  is  not  a  novice  or  tender-foot.  He  is  prob- 
ably a  past-master  in  salesmanship.  He  gained  his 
present  position  because  he  had  drilled  in  the  ranks. 
His  promotion  was  not  that  of  accident.  He  has  been 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  salesmen,  because  he  deserves 
to  occupy  that  position.  Not  only  is  he  familiar  with 
salesmanship,  but  he  is  a  part  of  the  policy  of  the  busi- 
ness. The  salesmen  under  him  should  look  up  to  him, 
should  believe  in  him  and  support  him  and  his  policies, 
except  in  exceptional  cases. 

Upon  general  principles,  the  man  at  the  head  deserves 
to  be  there  or  he  would  not  be  there,  and  upon  the  same 
general  principles  it  may  be  said  that  the  salesman 
under  the  sales-manager  is  not  as  proficient  in  policy- 
making  and  in  management  as  is  the  man  over  him,  al- 
though he  may  grow  to  be  superior  to  his  commander. 

The  best  salesmen  are  those  who  do  not  chafe  under 
discipline,  who  do  not  retaliate  at  the  unreasonableness 
of  the  customer,  who  realize  both  their  dependence  and 


INDEPENDENCE  IN  SELLING          185 

their  independence,  and  who  recognize  the  rights  of 
others,  so  long  as  the  exercise  of  them  does  not  insult 
their  self-respect. 

They  are  both  dependent  and  independent,  —  de- 
pendent upon  others,  that  they  may  learn  of  others  and 
satisfy  others,  and  independent  so  far  as  it  is  necessary 
to  be  for  the  exercise  of  their  self-respect  and  well- 
earned  judgment.  They  realize  that  their  strength  is 
not  in  their  own  individuality  wholly,  but  in  their 
ability  to  learn  of  others  and  to  shape  their  lives,  so 
that  instead  of  being  mere  individuals,  they  represent 
in  a  composite  way  the  best  obtainable. 

The  independent  man  does  not  live. 

Many  of  us  are  impressed  with  the  majesty  and 
dignity  of  the  commander  on  the  bridge.  His  face 
shows  the  wear  and  tear  of  sea,  wind,  and  experience; 
his  tread  is  positive;  his  words  few  and  to  the  point.  It 
is  popularly  supposed  that  he  is  in  absolute  command  of 
the  ship,  not  only  of  the  vessel  itself,  but  of  the  lives 
of  all  on  board.  He  represents  the  superlative  of  in- 
dependence and  individual  command.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  he  is  the  best  example  of  the  composite.  He 
reached  his  position  step  by  step.  As  he  stands  upon 
the  bridge,  the  personification  of  dignity,  he  is  one  of 
our  best  monuments  of  the  dependence  of  independ- 
ence. No  man  has  worked  harder  to  learn  what  others 
know,  no  man  has  experimented  more  than  he  has, 
no  man  is  more  willing  to  listen  to  the  whispers  of  the 
wind  and  to  let  the  gentle  breeze  warn  him  of  the  coming 


186  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

storm.  His  eyes  are  seldom  off  the  barometer  or  com- 
pass. He  is  a  product  of  composite  training,  the  repre- 
sentative of  true  independence. 

Do  not  be  afraid  of  not  receiving  the  respect  due  you. 
Better  find  out  whether  or  not  you  deserve  any  respect. 
If  you  are  worth  it,  you  are  likely  to  get  it  some  time. 

Do  not  be  jealous  of  yourself.  You  are  having  no 
worse  a  time,  probably,  than  the  experience  of  the 
thousands  who  are  with  you  and  above  you.  Our  lives 
are  much  alike,  so  far  as  business  goes.  We  have  to 
go  through  a  certain  amount  of  training  and  stumble 
and  fall  a  number  of  times.  All  this  is  discouraging, 
and  we  are  prone  to  envy  the  fellow  ahead,  and  to  pull 
at  the  reins,  forgetting  that  the  driver  may  have  had 
a  harder  time  than  we  are  having  while  between  the 
shafts  of  labor. 


SELF-CONFIDENCE  IN  SELLING 

BETTER  have  too  much  self-confidence  than  too 
little  of  it.  I  say  this  advisedly  and  emphatically  with 
a  full  appreciation  of  the  injury  which  usually  results 
from  over-confidence  and  arrogance. 

The  man  of  extreme  modesty,  the  reticent  man,  the 
man  who  approaches  the  customer  in  a  cringing  sort 
of  way,  will  never  consummate  a  sale  worth  while. 

I  despise  arrogance;  I  have  little  respect  for  over- 
confidence;  the  conceited  man  is  an  abomination; 
and  personally  I  have  some  admiration  for  the  man 
of  extreme  modesty,  particularly  in  these  days  when 
modesty  has  not  become  caronically  prevalent. 

To  sell  goods  is  an  art  by  itself,  and  aggressive  work 
is  necessary.  The  salesman  must  take  the  initiative. 
In  the  battle  he  must  fire  the  first  shot;  and,  if  his 
first  shot  misses  fire,  he  is  likely  to  suffer  defeat. 

Now  confidence,  even  too  much  of  it,  seems  to  be 
a  part  of  the  battle  of  life,  particularly  that  of  business, 
and  more  particularly  that  of  selling. 

The  customer,  for  the  most  part,  makes  it  a  point 
to  assure  the  seller  that  he  does  not  want  to  buy. 
He  produces  real  or  imaginary  obstacles.  He  is,  or 
pretends  to  be,  opposed  to  buying.  He  is  looking  for 
a  weak  place  in  the  salesman,  and  proposes  to  take 


188  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

advantage  of  it  if  he  finds  it.  Therefore,  the  sales- 
man with  little  self-confidence  is  likely  to  fail. 

Of  course,  the  perfect  salesman,  if  there  be  one, 
carries  with  him  the  right  amount  of  self-confidence 
and  modesty.  But  the  perfect  salesman  does  not 
exist,  and,  if  he  did,  he  would  have  a  hard  time  fight- 
ing the  imperfect  customer. 

The  appearance  of  arrogance  is  fatal,  and  too  much 
over-confidence  results  in  failure;  but  a  reasonable 
amount  of  self-confidence,  even  a  little  too  much  of  it, 
is  a  part  of  successful  salesmanship. 

No  one  can  sell  goods  if  he  approaches  the  customer 
with  apparent  discouragement  written  upon  his  face. 
The  appearance  of  failure  breeds  failure. 

Nobody  likes  to  buy  of  any  one  who  does  not  expect 
to  sell.  The  salesman  who  thinks  he  is  going  to  make 
a  sale,  or  who  acts  as  though  he  appeared  to  expect 
to  sell  the  goods,  who  has  confidence  written  on  his 
face,  stands  double  the  chance  of  selling  as  compared 
with  the  man  who  meets  his  customer  as  though  he 
were  afraid  of  him,  and  who  talks  his  goods  as  though 
he  were  sure  he  could  not  sell  them. 

The  question  naturally  arises,  how  can  I,  as  a  sales- 
man or  a  would-be  salesman,  obtain  and  carry  self- 
confidence? 

The  best  way  to  get  it  or  to  develop  it  is  to  be  enthu- 
siastic about  your  work,  to  respect  the  quality  of  your 
goods  and  the  house  you  work  for,  and  to  honestly 
believe  that  what  you  have  to  offer  actually  benefits 


SELF-CONFIDENCE  IN  SELLING       189 

the  buyer.  You  should  be  proud  of  your  work,  proud 
of  everything  connected  with  it,  and  consider  dis- 
couragement as  a  part  of  the  discipline  of  business. 

If  you  thoroughly  respect  your  goods  and  your 
employer,  if  you  are  proud  of  your  position,  and  if 
you  feel  that  you  have  what  the  customer  wants  or 
ought  to  want,  you  will  carry  with  you  a  certain 
amount  of  self-confidence;  in  fact,  it  will  be  well  nigh 
impossible  for  you  not  to  have  it. 

If  you  cannot  cultivate  this  self-confidence,  if  you 
are  going  to  remain  afraid  of  the  customer,  if  you 
cannot  bring  yourself  to  respect  your  work,  and  if 
you  are  always  thinking  of  the  discouraging  side  of  it, 
I  would  advise  you  to  give  up  trying  to  sell  goods 
and  obtain  some  other  position  if  you  can,  preferably 
in  some  clerical  line  where  what  you  do  means  a  good 
deal  more  than  the  way  you  do  it,  —  a  position  which 
does  not  bring  you  in  contact  with  the  active  side  of 
business. 

Remember  that  in  selling  goods,  and,  in  fact,  in 
doing  anything  else,  you  are  reckoned  by  what  you 
are.  If  you  have  confidence  in  yourself  and  in  your 
work,  you  show  it  and  the  customer  sees  it  and  feels 
it.  If  you  have  not,  instinctively  you  are  looked 
upon  as  a  weakling,  and  the  best  of  goods  and  inten- 
tions count  for  little. 

The  salesman  is  like  the  soldier  on  the  firing  line. 
If  he  cannot  stand  up  under  fire,  he  should  not  be 
allowed  to  handle  a  gun. 


190  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

Thousands  of  men  and  women,  competent  to  do 
good  work  in  clerical  or  other  lines,  have  been  induced 
to  become  sellers  of  goods,  and  they  make  little  or  no 
success  at  it,  although  most  of  them  manage  to  scrape 
together  a  living.  They  lack  the  essentials  of  sales- 
manship and  particularly  self-confidence.  They  are 
afraid  of  their  customers,  and  they  cannot  seem  to 
rid  themselves  of  this  fear.  They  should  make  the 
most  heroic  effort,  and,  if  it  fails,  the  quicker  they 
get  out  of  the  selling  ranks  the  better  off  they  will  be, 
for  there  is  no  opportunity  for  them  beyond  that  of 
the  lowest.  If  they  cannot  stand  bravely  in  front  of 
the  customer  and  meet  discouragement  and  rebuff  with 
a  smiling  face,  secure  in  the  confidence  of  their  ability 
to  make  a  sale  at  one  time  or  another,  if  the  sale  be 
possible,  they  have  no  right  to  pretend  to  practice 
salesmanship.  Their  place  is  elsewhere. 


STUDYING  OTHERS'  METHODS 

OUTSIDE  of  the  practice  of  the  concrete  arts  and 
clerical  work,  individuality  plays  an  important  part. 
In  fact,  without  the  exercise  of  personality,  and  doing 
things  one's  own  way  to  some  extent,  more  than  ordi- 
nary achievement  appears  to  be  impossible. 

This  exercise  of  individuality  is  much  in  evidence 
in  salesmanship.  While  there  are  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  selling,  which  cannot  be  done  away  with 
impunity,  the  majority  of  successful  salesmen,  and 
even  those  hardly  above  the  mediocre  class,  have 
some  method  of  their  own,  approach  people  in  a  little 
different  way  than  others  do,  and  present  arguments 
which  represent  self-thought-out  ideas,  even  to  a 
small  degree. 

I  have  already  said,  and  most  emphatically,  that 
salesmanship  cannot  be  taught  as  can  bookkeeping, 
or  chemistry,  or  mathematics,  or  other  concrete  arts 
or  sciences,  as  it  is  not,  and  probably  never  will  be, 
an  exact  art,  teachable  by  textbook  or  arbitrary  rule. 

Nevertheless,  salesmanship  is  not  above  instruction, 
but  this  teaching,  if  I  may  call  it  that,  should  come 
by  suggestion,  the  studying  of  men  and  things,  and 
by  the  exchange  of  experiences. 


192  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

Even  great  ability  can  be  developed  into  greater 
ability.  The  best  of  us  can  become  better,  know  more, 
and  achieve  more. 

Experience  and  contact  with  others  are  the  best 
teachers  of  salesmanship.  Much  of  salesmanship 
which  may  be  learned  comes  from  this  experience  and 
contact  with  others,  and  this  is  accomplished  by 
studying  others'  methods  and  by  using  as  much  of 
them  as  one  can  profitably  handle. 

The  practice  of  untrained  personality,  and  the 
exclusive  use  of  original  methods,  invite  failure.  Not- 
withstanding how  great  our  personality  may  be,  alone 
we  are  very  imperfect,  and  by  ourselves  it  is  impossible 
for  us  to  accomplish  anything  worth  while. 

Although  we  have  methods  of  our  own,  or  what 
appear  to  be,  and  although  many  of  us  possess  strong 
personality,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  these  methods  and 
our  personality  came  largely  through  others,  or,  rather, 
contact  with  others  developed  them.  While  large 
differences  are  noticeable,  all  of  us  have  something  in 
common,  and  most  of  our  ideas  are  adopted. 

Successful  salesmen  live  and  travel  with  salesmen, 
are  active  members  of  organizations  of  salesmen. 
They  never  lose  an  opportunity  to  discuss  with  others 
the  experiences  of  selling.  To  the  little  they  know 
they  add  the  much  that  others  know.  They  are 
students  of  the  human  nature  of  salesmanship.  They 
are  able  to  gather  something  from  every  one.  Even 
the  office  boy  can  give  them  points. 


STUDYING  OTHERS'  METHODS       193 

They  know  how  to  adapt  the  methods  of  others 
to  their  own  use.  They  absorb,  and  yet  distribute  at 
the  same  time.  They  take  and  they  give. 

Notwithstanding  that  there  are  many  different 
methods  of  selling,  they  are  not  necessarily  opposed 
to  each  other,  and  the  hearing  of  any  kind  of  experi- 
ence, whether  it  be  usable  or  not,  adds  materially  to 
working  knowledge. 

Salesmen  should  get  together,  play  profitable  games 
of  conversation,  exchange  experiences,  even  minor  ones, 
talk  about  everything  which  pertains  to  selling. 

In  no  other  way  can  one  become  a  successful  sales- 
man, for  in  no  other  way  can  he  get  beyond  himself 
and  use  experiences  and  methods  which  have  been 
proven  to  be  profitable. 

The  competent  salesman  knows  what  he  can  use, 
and  what  he  cannot  use,  to  advantage.  He  knows 
about  how  much  he  can  take  from  another,  and  what 
is  worthless  to  him. 

Never  lose  an  opportunity  to  talk  with  salesmen. 
Go  out  of  your  way  to  meet  them.  Arrange  to  spend 
some  evenings  together.  While  on  the  train,  congre- 
gate. Be  friendly.  If  you  are  able  to  absorb,  you 
are  fit  to  distribute,  and  it  will  be  an  even  exchange. 

If  you  are  behind  the  counter,  watch  the  other 
salesmen.  See  how  they  do  things.  Whenever  pos- 
sible, visit  other  stores  and  study  the  methods  pre- 
vailing. 

One  reason  why  the  average  traveling  salesman  is 


194  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

more  progressive  than  is  the  man  behind  the  counter 
is  because  he  comes  more  in  contact  with  his  craft, 
and  has,  perhaps,  a  better  opportunity  to  exchange 
experiences  and  ideas. 

But  the  inside  salesman  can  do  all  this  if  he  will. 
He  can  easily  study  the  methods  of  the  salesmen  close 
by  and  those  across  the  aisle.  He  has  opportunity  to 
visit  other  stores  and  to  watch  the  salesmen  there. 
He  can  meet  salesmen  in  the  evening.  I  would  advise 
him  to  form  an  association  of  his  kind,  if  there  is  not  a 
good  one  near  by,  to  hold  weekly  or  monthly  meetings, 
these  gatherings  to  be  open  forums,  with  or  without  a 
light  lunch.  Something  to  eat,  however,  helps  mightily. 
Much  of  what  goes  into  the  stomach  comes  out  through 
the  mind,  and  eating  together  brings  people  closer 
together. 

Arrange  to  meet  salesmen  at  your  noon-day  lunch 
—  not  all  of  the  time,  because  too  much  of  it  is  not 
good  for  you  and  you  need  outside  association. 

Do  not  be  afraid  to  ask  questions.  Refusal  to  do 
so  is  not  modesty  or  consideration  for  others,  but 
prima  fade  evidence  of  your  laziness  and  indifference. 
The  man  does  not  live  who  does  not  like  to  be  ques- 
tioned along  his  line.  In  this  direction  he  is  more 
willing  to  give  than  he  is  to  receive.  When  we  know 
a  thing,  we  like  to  tell  others  about  it.  If  you  want 
to  know  anything,  and  you  know  of  some  one  who 
has  it,  go  and  get  it.  He  is  standing  on  the  front 
steps  beckoning  you  to  him.  It  is  a  good  thing  for 


STUDYING  OTHERS'  METHODS       195 

him  to  tell  what  he  knows,  and  a  good  thing  for  you 
to  hear  him  tell  it. 

Get  together  socially  and  in  a  business  way.  No 
matter  how  expert  you  are,  you  do  not  know  it  all. 
Only  by  experience  and  contact  with  other  salesmen 
can  you  rise  from  the  ranks.  Then,  this  game  of 
conversation,  this  swapping  of  experiences,  is  not 
hard  work.  It  is  really  diversion.  It  is  interesting, 
or  should  be  made  to  be.  You  rest  while  you  talk 
and  listen. 

The  secretive  person  and  the  hermit  have  no  right 
to  live  in  the  world  of  selling.  Really,  there  is  not 
any  place  on  earth  for  them. 

Get  together,  and  keep  getting  together.  Study 
others,  and  let  others  study  you.  Learn,  not  only 
how  to  understand  others'  methods,  but  how  to  adapt 
them  to  yourself;  and,  what  is  as  important,  learn  by 
experience  and  by  a  study  of  yourself  how  to  discrim- 
inate between  the  good  methods  of  others  which  you 
can  use  and  the  equally  good  methods  of  others  which, 
for  some  reason,  you  can  never  successfully  practice. 

As  a  rule,  do  not  try  to  do  as  others  do  just  as  others 
do  it.  The  very  difference  between  us  makes  it  impos- 
sible for  any  two  of  us  to  be  exactly  alike  or  to  do 
the  same  thing  exactly  the  same  way.  Men  of  success 
are  composite.  They  use  what  they  have  and  what 
they  can  honestly  get  from  others.  They  are  not 
dishonest,  because  they  give  as  much  as  they  take, 
and  what  they  take  from  others  is  not  anybody's  loss. 


196  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

They  simply  become  a  part  of  the  great  world  of 
experience,  taking  and  giving  as  they  go  along,  never 
relying  wholly  upon  themselves,  but  realizing  that 
success  in  every  direction  depends  upon  interchange 
and  reciprocity. 


INDIVIDUALITY  IN  SELLING 

THERE  are  several  reasons  why  you  should  preserve 
your  own  and  exclusive  individuality,  especially  in 
salesmanship.  The  prime  one  is  that  you  have  not, 
and  cannot  have,  any  other  individuality. 

No  two  men  were  born  alike.  If  this  unprecedented 
accident  should  occur,  they  would  not  remain  alike, 
for  no  two  of  us  have  duplicate  experiences  or  can 
possibly  live  under  exactly  the  same  environment. 

Nature  does  not  permit  duplication  in  minute 
exactness  of  anything  either  on  the  earth  or  under 
the  earth.  There  are  no  two  thumb  marks  alike  among 
the  billions  of  inhabitants  of  the  world. 

Because  the  individuality  of  each  person  must 
remain,  and  is  subject  to  no  fundamental  change,  and 
because  we  cannot  possibly  possess  any  except  our 
own,  it  is  obviously  both  foolish  and  unbusiness-like 
to  attempt  to  be  what  we  are  not.  To  do  so  invites 
failure  and  results  in  discouragement  and  loss. 

True,  we  may  overcome  many  of  our  bad  habits, 
regulate  or  get  rid  of  our  irritating  mannerisms,  train 
the  harsh  voice  to  resemble  softness,  appear  to  be 
pleasant  when  we  feel  the  opposite,  and  curb  or  regu- 
late a  bad  disposition. 

All  of  the  foregoing  mentioned  changes  are  possible, 


198  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

and  some  of  them  are  probable,  notwithstanding  that 
we  cannot  alter  our  basic  individuality  any  more 
than  we  can  grow  hair  against  Nature's  intention. 

Many  a  man,  who  could  have  been  a  success  in  his 
own  way,  has  approached  failure  in  attempting  to  be 
somebody  else.  Our  capacities  are  limited  by  Nature, 
and  our  natural  ability  cannot  be  increased.  There 
is  just  so  much  in  each  one  of  us,  no  more  and  no  less. 
We  cannot  create,  although  we  may  regulate  and 
develop. 

Any  attempt  on  our  part  to  get  rid  of  our  innate  and 
prenatal  individuality  tends  towards  failure.  Better 
be  yourself,  because  you  cannot  be  anybody  else. 
Regulate  and  develop  your  individuality,  train  it  to 
be  usable,  curb  the  manifestation  of  the  objectionable, 
but  do  not  attempt  to  get  yourself  out  of  your  own 
system.  You  cannot  do  it. 

Whatever  you  are,  you  must  not  expect  to  satisfy 
everybody,  simply  because  that  feat  is  impossible  of 
accomplishment.  Some  folks  will  like  you  and  others 
will  not.  You  will  have  enemies  if  you  are  worthy. 

The  colorless  man  does  not  even  shed  the  light  of 
his  paleness.  At  best  he  is  but  a  reflector,  and  there 
is  little  warmth  in  reflected  rays.  There  is  nothing 
direct  or  positive  about  him.  He  is  like  a  water-logged 
ship  without  a  rudder,  a  captain,  and  a  crew.  He 
simply  floats  upon  the  sea  of  life,  and  even  the  rocks 
of  trade  have  too  much  self-respect  to  assist  in  wreck- 
ing him.  He  is  too  small  for  disaster  to  notice. 


INDIVIDUALITY  IN  SELLING          199 

Your  individuality,  properly  mastered,  is  one  of 
your  principal  selling  assets.  It  separates  you  from 
other  people.  It  takes  you  out  of  the  mass.  It  gives 
you  recognized  character  and  the  right  to  be  respected. 

You  will  be  judged  by  your  individuality  as  well  as 
by  your  ability.  Therefore  preserve  it,  develop  it, 
and  handle  it  as  you  would  any  other  perquisite, 
smoothing  it  out  here  and  there,  if  it  needs  it,  using 
the  best  parts  of  it  and  secreting  the  worst  of  it.  But 
be  yourself  all  the  time,  for  the  suppression  of  the  bad 
in  you  does  not  mean  loss  of  personality. 

The  individuality  which  antagonizes  the  buyer  is 
not  of  the  right  kind  for  selling  goods.  Therefore,  it 
must  be  controlled.  Yet  the  perfectly  smooth  man, 
who  never  says  anything  with  any  degree  of  positive- 
ness,  who  buries  all  the  personality  he  has,  will  never 
amount  to  anything  anywhere. 

Every  one  likes  individuality  if  it  is  properly  served, 
and  nobody  cares  anything  about  the  namby-pamby 
man  who  is  afraid  of  himself  and  of  everybody  else, 
and  who  is  content  to  float  and  never  to  swim  on  the 
stream  of  business. 

But  while  you  are  forging  ahead  there  is  no  need  of 
your  butting  your  head  against  the  rocks  just  because 
they  happen  to  be  in  your  way.  The  brave  man  steers 
away  from  danger.  He  circles  the  hills  he  cannot 
climb.  He  never  looks  for  trouble,  but  he  meets  it 
when  he  has  to.  Only  the  fool  is  fool-hardy,  for  he 
alone  fights  the  battles  which  are  unworthy  of  valor. 


200  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

To  sell  is  to  be  at  war.  You  are  against  competi- 
tion, and  part  of  the  victory  lies  in  the  presentation  of 
individuality  and  self-respect,  so  regulated,  mastered, 
and  handled,  that  they  will  enable  you  to  win  without 
bruising  and  without  giving  pain  to  either  party. 

Be  yourself,  anyway,  and  your  better  self.  Get  rid 
of  all  the  bad  you  have  in  you,  if  you  can.  If  you 
cannot  get  rid  of  all  of  it,  then  get  rid  of  as  much  of  it 
as  possible,  and  let  your  trained  and  mastered  person- 
ality be  the  salesman  of  your  better  self. 


PUNCTUALITY  IN  BUSINESS 

BEING  ahead  of  time  may  waste  a  minute.  Being 
on  time  may  save  an  hour  or  a  day.  Being  behind 
time  may  lose  a  sale.  The  late-man  always  rides  on 
the  last  car  of  the  train  of  never-get-there. 

If  you  make  an  appointment  with  a  customer,  keep 
it  if  possible.  Make  every  effort  to  be  on  time.  No- 
body likes  to  wait,  and  you  have  no  right  to  make  him 
wait.  If  you  find  it  impossible  to  meet  the  engagement, 
send  word  to  him  even  at  great  cost,  and  give  your 
reasons.  If  your  train  is  late,  telegraph  the  customer. 
If  you  are  taken  sick,  notify  him  of  your  condition. 

If  you  are  a  store-salesman,  always  be  on  time. 
If  your  train  or  trolley  is  likely  to  be  late,  take  an 
earlier  one. 

Better  be  ahead  of  time  than  behind  time. 

But  do  not  keep  an  appointment  ahead  of  time,  for 
you  have  no  right  to  call  upon  the  customer  earlier 
than  you  are  expected.  Better  wait  outside  half  an 
hour  and  enter  at  the  specified  time  than  to  force 
your  presence  upon  him  ahead  of  time.  It  may  annoy 
the  buyer  to  have  the  salesman  appear  before  the 
time  agreed  upon. 

But  there  is  no  objection  to  being  ahead  of  time  at 
the  office.  In  fact,  the  ahead-of-time  man  is  appreci- 


202  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

ated,  provided  he  starts  in  to  work  as  soon  as  he  gets 
there.  Heads  of  departments  and  proprietors  of 
business  are  usually  on  time  or  ahead  of  time,  and 
the  on-time  man  is  sure  to  attract  the  notice  of  his 
employer  and  to  gain  a  decided  business  advantage 
over  those  who  get  in  when  they  get  ready. 

The  on-time  man  can  be  depended  upon.  The 
fellow  behind  time  is  neither  faithful  to  himself  nor 
to  his  employer. 

No  matter  if  there  appears  to  be  nothing  to  do, 
and  if  apparently  there  would  be  no  harm  done  if 
you  were  half  an  hour  late  or  more,  that  day  may  be 
the  very  one  when  you  are  most  needed.  If  you  are 
there,  you  can  attend  to  things.  If  you  are  not  there, 
you  take  big  chances. 

The  reputation  for  punctuality  one  is  of  the  best 
business  assets.  If  you  are  not  reasonably  sure  of 
being  able  to  reach  a  certain  place  at  a  certain  time, 
set  the  time  ahead.  Do  not  try  to  make  too  close 
connections.  Many  a  railroad  train  is  late.  Compara- 
tively few  arrive  on  time. 

Let  us  suppose  that  you  wire  a  customer  that  you 
will  meet  him  at  two  o'clock,  which  you  can  do  only 
if  your  train  is  on  time.  Better  make  it  two-thirty 
or  three,  allowing  for  a  margin  of  safety,  than  to  run 
so  close  that  the  chances  are  against  the  keeping  of 
the  engagement. 

If  you  are  coming  from  a  distance,  and  are,  there- 
fore, dependent  upon  the  trains,  it  is  better  to  tele- 


PUNCTUALITY  IN  BUSINESS          203 

graph  the  customer,  or  write  him,  stating  that  you 
are  coining  to  Blanktown  on  the  train  due  to  arrive 
at  one  o'clock,  and  that  you  will  come  directly  to  his 
office.  If  you  do  not  reach  there  on  time,  he  will  know 
that  the  train  is  late,  and  will  blame  the  railroad,  not 
you;  whereby,  if  you  set  a  specific  hour,  and  fail  to 
meet  it,  the  customer  may  not  place  the  blame  where 
it  belongs.  Even  if  you  have  notified  him  that  you 
will  arrive  on  a  certain  train,  it  is  well  to  telegraph 
him  while  en  route  if  there  is  a  likelihood  of  the  train 
being  late.  The  courtesy  will  be  appreciated. 

Always  be  on  time  or  have  an  acceptable  reason  for 
being  late. 


THE  VOICE  IN  SELLING 

THE  tone  or  ring  of  the  voice  counts  in  every  walk 
of  life,  except,  perhaps,  in  that  of  the  purely  mechanical 
or  clerical;  but,  even  there,  it  is  not  of  inconsequence. 

Many  a  man  of  great  mental  capacity  has  not 
received  his  due  in  the  pulpit  because  his  voice  was 
harsh  and  irritated  his  hearers.  Many  a  lawyer  failed 
to  impress  the  jury  because  of  faulty  articulation. 

The  tone  of  the  spoken  word  is  of  much  importance, 
and  especially  in  salesmanship,  because  there  can  be 
little  of  it  without  the  use  of  the  voice. 

We  are  born  with  good  or  bad  voices,  and  the  man 
with  the  bad  tone  of  voice  cannot  well  compete  with 
one  who  possesses  a  voice  that  is  naturally  pleasing. 

But  the  irritable  voice  may  be  changed  into  one 
less  annoying,  although  it  never  can  be  brought  up 
to  the  standard  of  natural  perfection. 

If  your  voice  is  not  acceptable  to  those  you  talk 
to,  —  and  you  can  easily  ascertain  whether  it  is  or 
not,  —  you  can  by  care  and  practice  change  it  into  a 
less  objectionable  condition. 

I  am  not  suggesting  that  the  salesman  become  an 
elocutionist,  that  he  continuously  doctor  his  voice; 
but  I  do  advise  him  to  take  pains  with  it,  and,  if  it 
is  not  what  it  should  be,  to  do  something  to  remedy 
the  evil. 


THE  VOICE  IN  SELLING  205 

In  all  the  large  cities  there  are  located  schools  of 
expression  and  of  the  voice.  A  few  lessons  at  these 
institutions  are  likely  to  do  much  good.  The  experi- 
ment is  worth  trying,  and  the  expense  is  slight.  If 
they  are  unavailable  on  account  of  the  distance,  the 
advice  of  a  physician  is  suggested,  who  can,  perhaps, 
give  you  exercises  which  you  can  practice  without 
expert  instruction. 

Many  public  speakers,  and  nearly  all  clergymen  and 
lawyers,  have  been  subjected  to  voice-education. 
They  will  assist  you,  if  you  go  to  them,  or  tell  you 
where  you  can  obtain  help. 

Even  stuttering  can  be  largely  removed,  and  the 
sharp  edge  of  a  harsh  voice  can  be  toned  down. 

The  voice,  like  all  other  faculties,  is  subject  to  some 
change,  lends  itself  to  development,  and  may  be 
improved  with  proper  exercise,  practice,  and  care. 

The  tone  of  the  voice  is  a  selling  asset,  and  no  one 
has  a  right  to  allow  this  strong  aid  to  salesmanship  to 
be  other  than  at  its  best. 

So  strongly  do  I  appreciate  the  value  of  the  voice 
in  selling,  that  I  would  advise  every  salesman  of  good 
voice  or  otherwise  to  consult  some  expert  on  the  voice, 
that  he  may  help  to  make  his  good  voice  better  or  his 
poor  voice  acceptable. 


WHAT  TO  DO  OUTSIDE  OF  BUSINESS 

INATTENTION  to  business  kills  business.  Success  is 
impossible  unless  one  is  deeply  interested  in  his  work 
and  gives  to  it  painstaking  and  conscientious  atten- 
tion; but  no  man  is  a  full  man,  a  manly  man,  a  good 
citizen,  and  worthy  of  the  respect  of  his  community, 
who  is  a  slave  to  business,  and  who  keeps  himself 
constantly  under  the  lash  of  work. 

It  is  true  that  some  great  generals  of  industry  appar- 
ently never  get  out  of  the  field  of  business,  and  enjoy 
neither  diversion  nor  education,  and  are  deplorably 
unfamiliar  with  men  and  things,  caring  for  nothing 
save  the  making  of  money.  These  men,  although  of 
great  business  mark,  are  poor,  miserable,  and  despised 
failures,  and  leave  behind  them  neither  monuments 
nor  anything  else  save  the  disgust  of  those  who  traded 
with  them  and  lived  with  them  or  near  them. 

So  long  as  business  remains  strenuous,  and  selling 
a  difficult  task  to  perform,  the  major  part  of  one's  time 
must  be  given  to  business-doing;  but  this  does  not 
mean  that  one  cannot  breathe  an  atmosphere  outside 
the  store,  or  that  he  must  live  forever  in  the  dust  of 
business  activity.  It  is  better  to  be  a  man  of  health 
and  citizenship,  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  some  money, 


OUTSIDE  OF  BUSINESS  207 

than  to  remain  a  mere  weigher  and  sealer  of  financial 
profit. 

The  good  men  do  lives  after  them,  and  makers  of 
money  only  are  despised  while  they  live  and  forgotten 
when  they  die. 

Every  one  should  do  something  besides  business, 
and  should  stand  for  something  besides  the  making 
of  money.  He  should  have  some  outside  interest, 
enjoy  some  wholesome  diversion,  stand  for  something 
away  from  his  shop  or  office,  and  have  some  kind  of  a 
reputation  removed  from  his  place  of  business  and 
his  bank. 

If  his  interest  is  undivided,  and  he  thinks  of  nothing 
and  cares  for  nothing  save  that  of  making,  buying,  or 
selling,  he  is,  at  best,  little  more  than  an  automatic 
coiner,  a  chained  inmate  in  the  metallic  mint  of  money- 
making.  He  cannot  be  a  citizen  or  a  good  husband  or 
father.  He  is  an  obstructing  cog  in  the  mechanism  of 
progress. 

It  has  been  said  that  a  man  without  a  hobby  is  a 
fool.  Perhaps  " hobby"  is  not  just  the  word  to  use, 
but  let  it  stand.  It  is  a  fact  that  men  with  hobbies, 
with  interests  which  temporarily  take  them  out  of 
the  treadmill  of  work  and  open  to  them  new  avenues 
for  rest  of  body  and  mind,  which  utilize  the  anti- 
business-doing  cells  of  the  brain,  actually  accomplish 
more  in  their  offices  than  do  those  who  never  allow 
themselves  to  be  moved  by  outside  influences. 

These  men,  if  well-balanced,  do  not  neglect  business 


208  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

or  other  primary  duties.  When  they  work,  they  work. 
They  concentrate  their  minds  upon  what  they  are 
doing,  whether  it  be  the  selling  of  a  bill  of  goods,  the 
planning  of  a  new  business  scheme,  or  enjoying  a 
game  of  ball.  They  become  a  part  of  their  environ- 
ment. They  are  all  business  during  business  hours. 
They  are  all  play  when  in  the  field.  They  take  as 
much  interest  fishing  in  a  fishless  pond  as  they  do  in 
figuring  profit  and  loss.  They  are  rounded-out  men. 
They  seldom  fail  at  trade  or  at  play.  They  do  not 
pretend  to  be  literary,  yet  they  are  not  unfamiliar 
with  the  best  authors.  They  may  not  be  of  artistic 
temperament,  but  they  open  both  eyes  at  a  beautiful 
landscape  of  Nature  or  of  the  brush.  They  may  not 
hold  political  office,  yet  they  are  good  citizens.  They 
stand  for  progress  in  and  out  of  trade. 

There  is  something  the  matter  with  you  if  you  do 
not  have  something  outside  of  your  business  which 
interests  you.  It  may  be  yachting,  or  tennis,  or  golf, 
or  fishing,  or  tramping,  or  gardening,  or  good  reading, 
or  politics,  or  anything  else  in  the  line  of  rest  and 
progress,  citizenship  always  included. 

If  you  are  in  this  condition,  there  is  something  the 
matter  with  you  or  with  your  business.  You  are  not 
a  good  business  man,  although  you  may  be  a  successful 
accumulator,  if  you  have  not  the  ability  to  do  some- 
thing, and  think  of  something,  besides  money-changing. 

Every  real  man  stands  for  something  which  makes 
for  better  civilization,  and  does  something  which 


OUTSIDE  OF  BUSINESS  209 

fits  him  to  better  perform  his  business  and  social 
duties. 

It  is  your  duty  to  take  up  something  in  your  spare 
time,  and  you  can  have  spare  time  if  you  want  to 
have  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  you  will  work  better 
when  you  work  if  you  have  something  else  to  do  out- 
side of  your  working  hours.  Possibly  you  will  not 
make  quite  so  much  money,  but  you  will  be  a  better 
man,  a  stronger  man,  and  you  will  have  friends. 

Establish  some  kind  of  social  life,  even  though  you 
may  be  on  the  road.  Do  not  be  known  wholly  as  a 
salesman,  or  a  grabber  of  trade,  or  a  hard-fisted  ma- 
nipulator of  business  things. 

Be  posted  on  something  outside  of  your  livelihood- 
making.  Be  known  for  something  besides  your  busi- 
ness activity  and  trading  accomplishments. 

Be  well-read  on  some  subject,  if  you  like  to  read; 
and,  if  you  do  not,  cultivate  the  habit. 

If  you  enjoy  the  water,  be  a  good  yachtsman  and 
know  how  to  steer  your  boat.  If  you  play  tennis, 
play  a  good  game,  and  throw  your  heart  into  it  while 
on  the  court. 

Put  the  same  energy,  life,  and  interest  that  you 
give  to  business  into  the  desirable  things  outside  of 
business.  Have  something  about  yourself  that  will 
make  friends  and  hold  them. 

The  concentration  you  give  to  business  should,  to 
some  extent,  govern  your  outside  actions. 

Do  not  have  too  many  forms  of  diversion.     You 


210  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

have  not  the  time  to  do  all  things  well,  —  in  play  or 
in  work.  Success  depends  upon  the  oneness  of  your 
interests,  in  your  ability  to  keep  within  the  circle  of 
your  choice  and  trade. 

Good  citizenship  is  essential,  and  a  general  knowledge 
of  current  events  is  necessary  to  manhood.  Good 
systematic  reading  is  a  part  of  life-building.  One 
does  not  have  to  read  a  great  deal  to  know  a  great 
deal.  It  is  not  so  much  how  much  we  read,  but  what 
we  read,  that  counts.  The  persistent  reading  of  a 
few  publications,  including  a  good  daily  paper,  is  a 
foe  to  ignorance  and  a  developer  of  one's  best  faculties. 

(See  chapter  on  "What  to  Read.") 

Work,  and  work  hard,  at  your  business,  but  do  not 
let  that  be  the  only  end  to  your  life.  Your  business 
alone  does  not  make  a  marked  man  of  you,  and  the 
mere  getting  of  money  does  not  stand  for  lasting 
distinction. 

The  best  things  of  life  are  outside  of  business,  but 
business  must  play  its  part  while  it  is  necessary  to 
maintain  it. 

The  all-work  man  allows  his  body  to  wear  out  and 
his  mind  to  degenerate.  He  becomes  a  mechanical 
drudge,  a  worshiper  at  the  gilded  monument  of  trade. 

The  golden  calf  is  only  plated. 

Be  something  besides  a  business  man,  but  do  not  neg- 
lect business.  Round  yourself  out  into  a  good  citizen, 
for  your  own  sake  and  for  the  sake  of  those  who  come 
in  contact  with  you.  You  will  be  a  better  business 


OUTSIDE  OF  BUSINESS  211 

man  for  it,  and  you  will  be  respected  by  all  of  your 
associates,  and  then  you  will  lead  a  happy  life,  and 
when  old  age  comes  you  will  not  be  a  dried-up  bag  of 
money,  and  there  will  be  some  jingle  to  your  life  save 
the  rattle  of  coin. 


WHAT  TO  READ 

THE  book  does  not  make  the  man.  Book-learning 
alone  is  worth  practically  nothing,  but  few  men  ever 
knew  anything,  or  ever  did  anything,  who  did  not 
know  about  books. 

Book-reading  and  book-learning,  combined  with 
outside  experience,  accomplish  the  flush  of  result. 
One  without  the  other  stands  for  next-to-nothing. 

There  are  thousands,  yes,  hundreds  of  thousands, 
of  book-read  men,  who  are  but  derelicts  floating  on 
the  sea  of  education,  useless  to  themselves  and  menaces 
to  the  progress  of  intelligence.  They  are  examples  of 
what  education  cannot  do,  —  shattered,  mouldy,  mossy 
monuments  of  useless  endeavor.  They  are  store- 
houses of  information,  with  a  hundred  entrances  and 
no  exits,  misers  of  knowledge,  accumulators  who  do  not 
distribute. 

If  you  would  be  a  salesman,  do  not  be  a  book-worm, 
for  it  is  your  business  to  walk  and  run,  not  to  crawl. 

But  do  not  despise  books.  They  should  be  a  part 
of  your  social  and  business  life.  Without  them  you 
would  be  unfinished  and  unfit  for  all  of  the  big  things 
and  for  most  of  the  small  things. 

Because  there  are  so  many  good  books,  it  is  prob- 
ably well  for  me  not  to  designate  by  names  the  best 
ones  for  the  salesman  to  read.  It  is  obvious  that  I 


WHAT  TO  READ  213 

cannot,  at  arm's  length,  be  familiar  with  individual 
conditions  and  preferences.  Your  time  is  limited. 
You  cannot  possibly  read  all  there  is,  or  a  hundredth 
part  of  the  best.  Read  what  you  want  to  read,  pro- 
vided it  is  sensible  and  profitable,  and  remember  that 
what  you  get  out  of  what  you  read  counts  more  than 
the  number  of  books  you  read. 

Taste  for  good  reading  can  be  cultivated.  What 
you  do  not  like  to-day  you  may  love  to-morrow.  The 
best  way  to  discover  what  are  the  best  books  to  read 
is  to  pick  out  what  you  like,  and  then  to  consult  with 
your  friends  or  with  others  competent  to  advise  you. 
There  are  a  dozen  people  in  every  community  who  are 
well-read,  who  know  books,  and  who  can  help  you. 
But  be  careful  about  selecting  your  advisers.  As  you 
are  not  to  be  a  scholar  or  a  litterateur,  it  is  not  essen- 
tial to  make  a  specialty  of  reading  many  of  the  works 
which  somewhat  exclusively  appeal  to  professional 
book-readers.  The  expert  literary  man  in  advising 
you  may  shoot  too  high  for  you,  or,  perhaps,  too 
low  for  you,  because  he  may  not  appreciate  simplicity 
and  may  confine  his  recommendations  to  books  too 
heavy  to  float.  But  his  advice  is  good  if  you  offset 
it  with  suggestions  from  people  who  come  in  closer 
contact  with  every-day  men  and  things. 

The  advice  of  any  one  person  is  seldom  safe  to 
follow,  but  composite  suggestion  is  pretty  sure  to  be 
good.  Talk  with  both  professional  and  every-day 
people,  and  then  compromise  between  the  two.  Ex- 


214  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

change  reading  experiences.  Read  books  for  the  good 
that  they  will  do  you,  and  not  wholly  for  entertain- 
ment; but  do  not  forget  that  you  have  a  right  to  be 
entertained  a  part  of  the  time. 

As  a  salesman  you  should  know  about  business  in 
general  as  well  as  about  general  things,  and  much  of 
this  can  be  obtained  from  books.  Any  librarian  can 
give  you  a  list  of  good  business  books,  and  intelligent 
merchants  know  something  about  them.  If  you  can- 
not see  them  personally,  write  to  them.  The  editor 
of  your  trade  paper  can  be  of  much  assistance  to  you. 

Read  a  good  daily  paper  with  persistent  regularity, 
and  do  not  skip  any  part  of  it.  Read  the  editorials  as 
well  as  the  news,  and  do  not  omit  the  miscellany. 

Habitually  read  one  or  two  local  dailies,  including 
the  advertisements,  especially  those  of  the  line  you 
follow. 

The  newspaper  is  the  mirror  of  the  business  and 
social  life  of  its  community  and  of  the  country  and 
world  at-large.  It  has  its  imperfections,  but  no  more 
than  those  possessed  by  people  in  general,  and  it  is, 
as  a  rule,  of  a  grade  higher  than  that  of  its  community. 
Without  the  newspaper  there  could  be  little  inter- 
communication, and  most  of  the  good  in  the  world 
would  be  undistributed.  The  good  newspaper  is  in 
the  van  of  progress.  The  reader  of  a  well-conducted 
newspaper  cannot  be  an  ignorant  man. 

The  advertising  columns  always  contain  information 
of  strong  business  value,  so  much  of  it  that  I  would 


WHAT  TO  READ  215 

advise  all  business  men  to  regularly  read  at  least  a 
part  of  the  advertisements. 

Subscribe  to  magazines  devoted  to  salesmanship 
and  to  general  business.  Do  not  neglect  the  trade 
paper.  Read  every  issue  of  it,  from  beginning  to  end, 
including  the  advertisements.  Some  of  the  trade  papers 
thoroughly  represent  the  trade,  and  others  are  poorly 
gotten  up  and  miserably  edited;  but  there  is  some- 
thing worth  while  in  all  of  them.  If  your  firm  does 
not  subscribe  for  them,  or  you  cannot  buy  them  while 
away,  have  them  sent  to  your  house  or  purchase  them 
on  the  road.  Read  them  conscientiously  and  thor- 
oughly. There  is  a  lot  of  wheat  among  the  chaff,  and 
if  you  are  interested  and  discriminating,  you  will 
separate  the  good  from  the  poor. 

Not  only  read  about  the  particular  things  you  sell, 
but  familiarize  yourself  with  the  goods  which  you  do 
not  sell,  if  the  house  you  are  working  for  carries  them; 
and  become  familiar,  by  reading  and  otherwise,  with 
everything  pertaining  to  your  business  and  to  all 
general  business  which  may  indirectly  benefit  you. 

Read  regularly  some  good  review,  a  paper  or  maga- 
zine which  comments  upon  current  events  and  which 
covers  the  whole  world  of  information.  There  are 
several  of  these  published,  and  most  of  them  are 
worth  subscribing  for. 

Read,  besides,  one  or  more  magazines  devoted  to 
general  literature.  They  will  furnish  you  with  both 
entertainment  and  instruction. 


216  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

Keep  up  your  reading  systematically.  Spend  half 
of  your  reading  time  in  general  reading,  the  other 
half  in  reading  about  your  business. 

Be  so  much  interested  in  your  goods  and  in  your 
work  that  you  will  enjoy  reading  everything  pertain- 
ing to  them,  from  the  climate  where  the  beginning  of 
them  grows,  to  the  packing-boxes  in  which  they  are 
shipped. 


WIT  AND  HUMOR  IN  SELLING 

GENUINE  wit  and  clean-cut  humor  are  profitable 
commodities  in  any  market,  and  should  be  carefully 
cultivated.  The  possessor  of  them  has  an  advantage 
over  those  who  are  too  sedate,  too  dense,  and  do  not 
or  cannot  appreciate  the  lights  and  sparkles  of  life. 

The  wit  and  the  humorist  are  the  creators  of  human 
sunshine.  They  have  a  distinct  and  necessary  place  in 
the  world. 

I  would  pity,  yes,  I  would  be  somewhat  suspicious 
of  the  man  who  possessed  no  sense  of  humor.  There  is 
something  the  matter  with  him  somewhere. 

The  man  of  strong  individuality  and  of  marked 
ability,  the  owner  of  most  of  the  elements  of  success, 
can  usually  crack  a  joke,  or  appreciate  one,  or  do  both. 

But  wit,  valuable  as  it  is,  must  be  handled  with  the 
nicest  care.  It  is  a  delicate  proposition  considered 
commercially.  It  is  more  of  a  hair-spring  than  a 
main-spring.  If  it  is  always  in  evidence,  or  if  there  is 
too  much  of  it,  it  is  sure  to  work  injury  to  its  possessor. 
Too  much  wit  is  like  a  diamond  without  a  setting,  — 
there  is  nothing  back  of  it  in  the  way  of  contrast. 

Selling  goods  is  more  or  less  cold-blooded  business. 
It  is  serious  to  the  buyer,  because  it  takes  his  money; 


218  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

and  equally  serious  to  the  seller,  because  he  does  it  for 
a  living.  Therefore,  the  introduction  of  wit,  or  the 
funny  story,  should  be  carefully  safe-guarded. 

The  successful  seller  caters  to  the  impulses  and  desires 
of  the  customer.  He  must  do  it  or  fail.  It  is  for  the 
buyer,  not  the  seller,  to  set  the  conversational  pace,  to 
designate  the  policy  of  everything  outside  of  business. 

The  salesman  may  take  the  business  initiative,  but 
to  the  seller  is  allowed  the  privilege  of  controlling  the 
social  initiative. 

If  you,  as  a  seller,  are  reasonably  certain  that  the 
buyer  would  enjoy  a  funny  story,  or  a  display  of  wit, 
give  it  to  him. 

Even  the  best  of  wit  is  sometimes  considered  flip- 
pancy by  some  men,  and  especially  by  the  buyer  if  he 
is  harassed  and  naturally  morose.  The  best  story  may 
prevent  a  sale  on  one  occasion  and  help  to  consummate 
one  on  another. 

The  best  rule  to  follow  is  never  to  joke,  or  to  tell  a 
funny  story,  or  to  enter  into  any  social  conversation, 
unless  encouraged  to  do  so  by  the  buyer. 

Of  course,  if  the  salesman  is  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  buyer,  or  they  are  warm  personal  friends,  he 
then  may  have  excuse  to  let  down  the  bars  at  will, 
for  this  friendship  carries  with  it  social  rights,  but  even 
here  it  is  better  to  be  careful. 

The  improper  story  is  never  in  good  taste,  and  cannot 
assist  in  selling  goods.  Even  the  teller  of  the  question- 
able joke  may  not  respect  the  salesman  who  outrages 


WIT  AND  HUMOR  IN  SELLING        219 

decency  in  his  stories.  Unclean  fun  is  a  dangerous 
proposition  everywhere. 

But  a  cheery  face  and  a  genial  smile  are  always  ac- 
ceptable and  must  work  for  success.  They  cannot  an- 
tagonize anybody.  They  are  absolutely  non-irritant. 

When  in  doubt,  do  not  be  funny.  Be  business-like 
first,  humorous  afterwards.  Never  carry  your  wit  to  a 
market  which  will  not  appreciate  it. 


RECREATION  AND  EXERCISE 

ALTHOUGH  I  have  touched  upon  these  subjects  under 
the  chapter  heading  of  "What  to  Do  Outside  of  Busi- 
ness," I  believe  that  they  are  of  sufficient  consequence 
for  a  chapter  by  themselves. 

The  book-worm  and  his  business  brother  crawl 
through  life,  accomplishing  little  for  humanity,  in- 
cluding themselves.  Voluntarily  they  bury  themselves 
in  books  or  business  and  forever  remain  in  the  tombs 
of  their  choice.  They  begrudge  the  hours  of  sleeping 
and  of  eating,  and  refuse  to  reciprocate  the  smile  of 
the  sun.  They  load,  but  they  seldom  fire.  Their  am- 
munition, procured  at  the  cost  of  manhood,  remains  a 
useless  thing,  contributing  nothing  to  any  kind  of 
up-building. 

Occasionally  we  find  men  who  stick  to  business  at 
a  sacrifice  of  everything  worth  having,  including  the 
better  part  of  business.  They  are  a  detriment  to  trade, 
a  menace  to  society. 

Neither  the  body  nor  the  mind  can  do  its  best  with- 
out periods  of  rest.  It  is  not  how  much  we  work,  but 
how  we  work,  that  counts. 

The  successful  and  economical  man  economizes  his 
time.  When  he  works  he  works  with  all  his  body  and 
mind,  and  when  he  rests  he  relaxes  all  over.  He  plays 


RECREATION  AND  EXERCISE          221 

as  heartily  and  as  faithfully  and  conscientiously  as  he 
works. 

Loafing  is  not  resting,  nor  does  it  contribute  a  frac- 
tion of  a  mite  to  the  making  or  maintenance  of  either 
the  physical  or  the  mental.  But  the  right  amount  of 
recreation,  the  proper  letting  down  of  the  bars,  the 
hearty  laugh,  the  real  play,  contribute  mightily  to  the 
building  of  the  monument  of  success  in  every  calling. 

Sticking  to  business  should  not  be  confined  to  the 
exclusive  doing  of  business,  for  it  is  as  important  to 
be  in  a  condition  to  do  business  as  it  is  to  do  business 
itself. 

Few  of  us  are  so  situated  that  we  cannot  get  moments 
and  hours  of  recreation,  time  and  opportunity  to  re- 
cuperate, to  make  the  body  and  mind  better  able  to 
stand  the  strain  of  work. 

If  you  would  succeed,  if  you  would  develop  the  best 
of  yourself,  take  care  of  yourself.  If  your  occupation 
is  such  that  there  appears  to  be  no  opportunity  for 
exercise,  first  make  sure  that  no  opportunity  exists, 
and  then  make  a  change  if  it  is  possible.  Yes,  make  a 
change  if  it  requires  a  sacrifice. 

All  the  money  in  the  world  is  worthless  if  you  have 
no  time  to  enjoy  it.  The  highest  business  or  profes- 
sional position  is  of  inconsequence  if  there  is  nothing 
back  of  it  or  around  it. 

Relaxation  is  easy  to  obtain  in  most  cases  for  one 
constantly  and  conscientiously  hunting  for  it. 

If  you  live  near  your  place  of  business,  walk  to  it 


222  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

every  day  or  nearly  every  day.  A  pair  of  heavy  shoes, 
a  rain-coat,  and  an  umbrella  will  allow  you  to  take  your 
daily  walk  irrespective  of  the  weather.  Folks  seldom 
get  cold  or  become  sick  from  being  exposed  to  the  nat- 
ural elements,  unless  they  are  hot-house  plants  unused 
to  naked  air  and  sunshine. 

If  you  live  quite  a  distance  from  the  office,  walk  a 
part  of  the  way,  and  do  it  systematically  and  regularly. 
Find  some  friend  who  will  walk  with  you,  for  compan- 
ionship doubles  the  value  of  diversion. 

When  you  walk,  learn  to  walk  properly.  If  you  do 
not  know  how,  find  out.  Your  doctor  will  gladly  tell 
you,  and  much  better  than  I  can  on  the  printed  page. 

Do  not  eat  your  lunch  alone.  Go  to  lunch  with  some- 
body, or  arrange  to  meet  friends  at  luncheon. 

Do  not  spend  all  your  evenings  in  book  and  maga- 
zine study  or  in  reading.  Converse  with  others.  Play 
a  frequent  game  of  profitable  conversation  where  all 
at  the  table  win. 

Set  aside  a  few  evenings  every  week  for  social  inter- 
course. Have  friends  come  to  your  house  and  go  to 
theirs.  Do  not  spend  all  your  time  card-playing,  but 
talk  matters  over,  and  have  a  social  good  time  discuss- 
ing all  things  of  interest,  in  a  light,  easy,  conversational 
way. 

Do  not  limit  your  friends  to  those  in  your  business. 
Get  outside  of  your  business  a  part  of  the  time  and  ex- 
change experiences  with  those  who  do  not  work  as 
you  do. 


RECREATION  AND  EXERCISE         223 

Play  ball  if  you  get  a  chance,  and  you  can  do  it  even 
in  Winter.  If  there  is  a  gymnasium  near  by,  and  good 
jolly  fellows  attend  it,  join  the  gymnasium,  but  do  not 
over-exercise  or  become  an  athlete. 

Better  be  outdoors  than  indoors.  Learn  to  swim, 
and  swim  at  every  opportunity  in  the  ocean,  lake,  and 
river,  when  the  water  is  warm,  and  patronize  the 
swimming  school  in  the  Winter. 

Take  trolley  rides,  so  as  to  get  a  diversity  of  scenery; 
but  when  you  leave  the  trolley,  walk,  and  walk  part 
of  the  way  back,  picking  up  the  trolley  en  route. 

Have  some  objective  point.  Do  not  walk  aimlessly 
or  alone,  if  you  can  help  it.  There  is  more  enjoyment 
and  real  diversion  in  traveling  a  mile  with  a  friend,  or 
to  meet  a  friend,  than  there  is  in  attempting  to  walk 
two  miles  with  nobody  to  see  nobody.  Get  out  of 
yourself  at  every  proper  opportunity. 

Do  not  be  so  much  engrossed  in  business  that  you 
can  think  of  nothing  else,  because  if  you  do  not  think 
of  something  else,  and  do  not  do  something  else,  you 
will  be  deficient  in  business. 

If  your  work  requires  a  certain  kind  of  exercise,  take 
a  different  kind  when  out  of  the  shop. 

Never  take  any  diversion  without  an  aim  or  a  pur- 
pose. Do  not  make  hardship  of  it.  Get  pleasure  out 
of  it.  You  can  if  you  will. 

Getting  physically  tired  in  moderation,  if  there  is 
nothing  seriously  the  matter  with  you,  means  a  better 
night's  sleep  and  a  greater  capacity  for  work.  But  do 


224  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

not  get  over-tired.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  over-doing 
any  kind  of  exercise.  Never  over-strain  yourself  or 
take  physical  chances,  for  the  strenuous  sports  do 
much  more  harm  than  good,  and  often  injure  for  life. 

If  you  are  naturally  athletic,  and  enjoy  severe  exer- 
cise, do  not  go  into  it  until  you  have  consulted  a  good 
physician  that  you  may  know  your  limitations.  It 
may  not  hurt  you  to  get  tired,  but  exhaustion  is  in- 
jurious. Do  not  allow  yourself  to  always  decide  for 
yourself.  No  man,  unless  a  physician,  knows  his 
physical  strength  or  how  much  he  can  stand,  and 
thousands  of  young  men  have  driven  themselves  into 
premature  ill-health  by  over-exercise.  Consult  some- 
body who  knows. 

Physicians,  nowadays,  are  strong  advocates  of  out- 
door exercise,  but  none  of  them  believe  in  strenuous 
athletics.  For  a  few  dollars  they  will  tell  you  just  how 
to  take  care  of  yourself. 

Do  not  allow  yourself  to  be  guided  wholly  by  books 
on  physical  culture,  for  the  book  cannot  diagnose,  and 
unless  you  have  been  professionally  trained  you  cannot 
possibly  know  what  to  do  and  how  to  do  it. 

It  is  just  as  much  your  duty  to  take  care  of  your 
physical  health  as  it  is  to  train  your  mind  or  do  business. 
And  it  is  your  further  duty  to  scientifically  and  intelli- 
gently find  out  what  is  best  for  you  to  do,  and  not  to 
depend  upon  your  lack  of  knowledge  or  upon  the  advice 
of  the  untrained. 

But  do  not  over-do  diversion.    Diversion  is  only  a 


RECREATION  AND  EXERCISE         225 

part  of  life.  The  all-time  baseball  fan,  the  ever-run- 
ning crank,  and  other  kinds  of  athletic  enthusiasts, 
become  so  much  interested  in  outside  things  that  they 
cannot  properly  attend  to  business.  The  extremist, 
either  in  business  or  in  play,  is  a  natural  fool  or  has 
acquired  foolishness. 

There  is  one  thing  which  you  cannot  over-stock  in, 
and  that  is  common  sense.  Apply  the  same  common 
sense  to  your  play  as  you  do  to  your  business,  and  do 
not  allow  yourself  to  be  your  sole  dictator. 

What  you  want  to  do  in  the  way  of  play  or  exercise 
may  not  be  the  best  thing  for  you  to  do. 

Although  dissipation  frequently  accompanies  the 
action  of  diversion,  it  has  no  right  to  be  a  part  of  it. 

A  glass  of  whiskey  can  spoil  a  day  of  pleasure  and 
bring  you  back  to  your  work  much  worse  off  than  if 
you  had  slaved  in  the  office. 

Never  do  anything  in  the  way  of  diversion  which  is 
wholly  physical  or  wholly  mental.  Combine  the  two. 
Otherwise  you  make  drudgery  of  it. 

But  get  diversion  and  exercise  some  way,  and  you 
can  in  most  cases,  if  you  will. 


CANVASSERS  AND  BOOK  AGENTS 

COMMERCIALLY  speaking,  the  house-to-house  can- 
vasser and  peddler,  and  the  seller  of  books  outside  of 
the  store  and  the  trade,  are  designated  as  canvassers 
or  book  agents.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they  are  salesmen, 
and  none  of  them  are  agents  in  any  sense.  The  act  of 
the  agent  involves  his  principal,  who  is  legally  respon- 
sible for  his  doings.  The  book  agent  is  agent  in  name 
only. 

These  sellers  differ  primarily  from  others  in  that  they 
do  not  sell  to  the  trade  as  a  rule,  do  not  stand  behind 
the  counter,  do  not  have  places  of  business,  and  do  not 
usually  sell  goods  to  be  sold  again.  They  do  not  cater 
to  any  regular  trade,  as  does  the  shoe  salesman,  for 
example,  although  they  may  have  a  selected  list  of 
customers. 

It  has  been  said  that  it  is  more  difficult  to  sell  from 
house  to  house  than  it  is  to  sell  in  any  other  way. 
This  cannot  be  so,  because,  if  it  is,  the  selling  of  these 
articles  would  require  a  very  high  grade  of  salesman- 
ship, and  men  and  women  who  apparently  are  not  pos- 
sessed of  even  ordinary  selling  ability  would  not  seem 
to  be  able  to  make  a  living. 

The  expert  book  agent,  —  and  allow  me  to  use  this 
term  because  it  is  so  common,  —  who  handles  encyclo- 
pedias and  other  voluminous  and  high-priced  works,  — 


CANVASSERS  AND  BOOK  AGENTS      227 

has  the  fundamental  characteristics  of  a  great  salesman, 
and  probably  would  succeed  as  a  regular  seller  of  trade 
commodities.  But  the  average  book  agent  sells  books 
because  he  cannot  find  anything  else  to  do,  or  thinks 
that  he  cannot,  because  no  capital  is  required,  because 
he  can  usually  begin  without  experience,  and  because 
he  can  work  to-day  and  stop  to-morrow,  and  be  a  sort 
of  go-as-you-please  seller.  A  proportion  of  these  people 
do  not  continue  in  the  business,  but  take  up  some  other 
line  if  they  can  find  it. 

A  superintendent  of  book  agents,  employing  thou- 
sands of  men  and  women,  told  me  that  anybody  who 
could  talk  could  sell  books,  and  that  talking  was  the 
prime  requisite.  The  fact  that  most  book  agents  are 
fluent  talkers,  whether  they  know  how  to  talk  or  not, 
and  the  further  fact  that  a  large  amount  of  vocal 
energy  is  expended  at  the  consummation  of  every  sale, 
would  indicate  that  the  rapid  and  fairly  good  talker 
would  make  a  good  book  agent. 

The  high-class  book  agent  may  earn  from  $5,000  to 
$6,000  a  year,  although  the  latter  figure  is  very  unusual. 
He  succeeds  because  he  has  the  right  selling  stuff  in 
him,  is  everlastingly  persistent,  uses  good  judgment,  has 
the  power  of  diagnosing  the  customer,  is  a  good  judge 
of  human  nature,  and  is  willing  to  stand  any  kind  of 
rebuff,  even  insult.  These  men  are  geniuses,  and  many 
of  them  would  make  less  money  in  some  other  calling, 
although  it  is  probable  that  they  would  do  well  in 
almost  any  selling  direction. 


228  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

But  the  rank  and  file  of  book  agents  and  other  can- 
vassers either  do  poorly  or  fairly  well,  and  seldom 
make  more  than  a  living,  often  because  they  do  not 
exert  themselves. 

The  book  agent,  first  of  all,  should  know  his  books 
and  be  familiar  with  similar  works.  He  should  carry 
with  him,  not  only  his  own  opinion  about  the  book 
for  sale,  but  that  of  authoritative  readers,  —  men 
and  women  of  mark,  —  that  he  may  present  argu- 
ments other  than  his  own,  and  be  ever  ready  to  quote 
authorities. 

He  should  know  what  the  book  is  good  for,  what  it 
will  do,  and  how  it  will  help  the  reader,  especially  the 
last.  He  should  school  himself  not  to  be  affected  by 
constant  failure,  because  he  cannot  expect  to  sell  to 
every  one  he  meets;  yet  he  must  have  that  persistency 
that  will  allow  him  to  feel  that  every  one  he  sees  is  a 
possible  customer,  and  he  must,  while  before  the  cus- 
tomer, show  the  confidence  of  expected  success. 

He  should  have  a  general  literary  or  scientific  knowl- 
edge of  books  in  general,  and  possess  the  power  of  de- 
scription. He  should  allow  the  customer  to  do  some 
of  the  talking;  in  fact,  he  should  encourage  him  to  do 
so,  because  the  more  the  customer  talks  the  easier  it  is 
for  him  to  find  out  what  the  customer  wants,  and  he 
is  then  better  able  to  present  the  book  specifically. 

He  should  be  so  familiar  with  the  book  that  he  can 
turn  to  any  page  of  it  upon  request,  and  speak  intelli- 
gently and  emphatically  on  any  point  mentioned. 


CANVASSERS  AND  BOOK  AGENTS      229 

Many  people  buy  books,  not  for  their  entirety,  but  for 
some  particular  part  of  them;  and  the  presentation  of 
some  one  picture  or  chapter  may  be  sufficient  to  sell 
the  book.  It  is,  therefore,  incumbent  upon  the  seller 
to  discover  the  likes  and  dislikes  of  the  customer. 

The  names  of  prominent  buyers  of  the  book  are  of 
consequence.  The  agent  should  obtain  a  list  of  the 
friends  of  his  customers  and  permission  to  use  their 
names.  Most  folks,  especially  the  common  people, 
follow  a  leader,  and  buy  what  others  buy. 

The  good  book  agent  obtains  a  list  of  possible  cus- 
tomers and  finds  out  something  about  them  in  advance. 
He  does  not  waste  time  in  presenting  an  undesirable 
book  to  them. 

The  method  of  approach  is  of  extreme  importance. 
Most  people  seem  to  have  an  apathy  against  all  book 
agents  and  canvassers,  and  they  will  say  "no,"  and 
snap  it  out,  even  though  they  may  buy  afterwards. 
They  may  refuse  to  allow  the  agent  to  talk. 

Great  control  of  one's  feelings  is  necessary.  The 
slightest  show  of  irritation  on  the  part  of  the  agent  is 
fatal  to  a  sale.  He  must  meet  a  frown  with  a  smile, 
and  create  a  good  impression  at  the  start.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  bring  a  customer  into  a  buying  mood,  unless  the 
first  few  words,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  are 
expressed,  are  pleasing  to  the  customer. 

Stereotyped  stories  or  descriptions,  recited  in  a 
parrot-like  manner,  are  to  be  discouraged. 

The  agent  should  get  in  connection  with  others  of 


230  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

his  class  and  exchange  experiences.  If  he  is  at  all  pro- 
ficient, he  will  learn  how  to  meet  men  and  women,  and 
frame  a  sort  of  informal  form  of  presentation  or  argu- 
ment which  is  likely  to  work  well  under  usual  conditions. 

Courage  is  absolutely  necessary  in  the  selling  of 
books  or  house-to-house  articles,  because  the  agent 
generally  interrupts  the  work  of  the  housewife  and 
business  man,  and  most  of  them  are  not  professional 
buyers. 

Success  requires  almost  instantaneous  quickness,  and 
a  large  amount  of  personal  persuasion.  But  back  of 
it  all  is  that  everlasting  persistency  and  refusal  to 
recognize  failure,  that  schooled  ability  to  pleasantly 
meet  both  insulting  rebuff  and  placid  indifference. 

It  offers  a  living  to  most  people  who  are  willing  to 
work,  and  it  certainly  presents  one  with  an  opportunity 
to  gain  a  large  amount  of  experience. 

The  same  principles  which  apply  to  the  selling  of 
books  from  house  to  house  are  equally  pertinent  to  the 
selling  of  any  other  articles  by  canvassers. 


THE  ACADEMIC  EDUCATION  OF  THE 

SALESMAN 

WHAT  should  be  the  academic  or  school  education 
of  the  seller  of  goods?  It  is  as  well  to  ask  what  should 
be  the  educational  requirements  of  anybody  about  to 
enter  any  department  of  business. 

The  answer  is  terribly  vexed.  There  is  almost  a 
babel  of  opinion  concerning  it.  The  curriculums  and 
methods,  from  those  of  the  between-town  school  to 
the  university  post-graduate  course,  show,  perhaps,  a 
greater  diversity  of  professional  and  every-day  ideas 
than  exists  in  any  other  department  of  human  affairs. 

The  academic  side  of  education  is  deservedly  re- 
ceiving the  earnest  thought  of  the  whole  civilized 
world.  Thousands  of  conscientious,  highly  educated, 
and  trained  men  and  women  are  giving  their  lives  to 
the  cause,  and  are  attempting  to  formulate  an  educa- 
tional policy  which  will  be  somewhat  universally 
acceptable  to  the  people  at-large. 

The  pessimistic  educator  and  researcher  may  claim 
that  educational  curriculums,  methods,  and  policies 
have  shown  less  improvement  than  the  changes  wrought 
in  any  other  department  of  business  or  commercial 
science. 

Even  the  optimistic  man  of  learning  is  not  able  to 
refute  all  of  the  damaging  statements  made,  for  it  is 


232  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

quite  probable  that  if  a  totally  unbiased  and  fair  jury 
could  be  impaneled  that  it  would  be  able  to  discover 
ample  evidence  of  greater  improvement  along  purely 
business  lines  than  in  educational  fields. 

Business-doing  and  manufacturing  have  undergone 
an  almost  complete  change.  There  are,  to-day,  few 
machines  or  processes  which  were  used  a  few  years 
ago;  while  in  the  educational  world  one  finds  a  major- 
ity of  old  methods  in  vogue,  which  are  acknowledged 
by  educators  to  be  unfit  for  their  work;  and  yet  these 
methods  continue  to  prevail,  because  expert  academic 
learning  and  educational  direction  do  not  seem  to  be 
as  active  and  as  progressive  as  is  the  selfishness  of 
business. 

But  the  book  reader  and  the  business  worker,  the 
academic  researcher  and  the  expert  at  trading,  are 
getting  together,  each  contributing  his  part  to  what 
cannot  help  becoming  a  profitable  whole,  and  we  may 
confidently  look  forward  to  the  early  arrival  of  an 
educational  train  directly  connecting  the  school-house 
with  the  house  of  business. 

Present  academic  education,  broadly  speaking,  con- 
sists of  what  is  given  in  the  common  schools,  the 
high  school,  the  classical  or  preparatory  school,  the 
technical  school,  and  the  college. 

However  much  we  may  differ,  it  is  impossible  to 
find,  in  and  out  of  the  educational  craft,  any  one  who 
does  not  consider  a  grammar  school  education  essen- 
tial to  any  kind  of  business-doing. 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  SALESMAN      233 

While  it  is  true  that  some  illiterate  business  men 
have  become  marvelous  financial  successes,  not  one 
of  them  would  claim  that  lack  of  education  did  any- 
thing for  him,  and  probably  all  of  them  would  be  fair 
enough  to  admit  that  if  they  had  had  more  school 
training  they  would  have  been  better  off  socially  and 
financially. 

Therefore,  I  think  I  may  safely  contend  that  the 
would-be  salesman,  and  all  those  who  would  enter 
business,  should  have  at  least  a  grammar  or  common 
school  education,  without  which  they  would  be  materi- 
ally handicapped,  not  only  at  the  start  but  all  through 
life.  And  I  would  most  emphatically  advise  any  one 
intending  to  enter  business  to  graduate  from  what  is 
known  as  a  high  school,  an  institution  which  is  both 
a  preparatory  and  a  finishing  school. 

While  attendance  at  this  latter  institution  may  not 
be  considered  absolutely  essential,  it  is,  I  believe,  of 
great  consequence,  as  it  gives  a  knowledge  of  men  and 
things,  which  the  lower  schools  cannot  possibly  pre- 
sent, and  then  it  teaches  one  how  to  teach  himself, 
makes  him  better  able  to  grasp  a  situation,  gives  him 
a  higher  respect  for  himself,  and  prevents  a  feeling  of 
educational  deficiency. 

The  high  school  course  comes  at  the  right  time  in 
one's  life,  when  he  has  finished  the  Three  R's  of  Edu- 
cation, is  old  enough  to  better  weigh  educational  values, 
and  is  in  the  best  condition  for  the  absorption  of  aca- 
demic knowledge.  Later  on  in  life  he  cannot  as  easily 


234  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

acquire  the  fundamentals,  and  he  is  not  likely  to  have 
the  time  for  school-room  training.  The  three  or  four 
additional  years  are  not  wasted,  and  one  should  cer- 
tainly contribute  this  time  to  academic  study  unless 
financial  or  other  obstacles  arise. 

Would  I  advise  the  coming  salesman  to  go  higher 
academically,  to  graduate  from  the  technical  school,  or 
institute  of  technology,  or  college? 

If  he  is  going  to  sell  goods  of  a  technical  nature, 
graduation  from  a  good  institution  of  technology  will 
broaden  him  out  generally  and  will  make  him  better 
able  to  meet  his  customers  and  to  override  technical 
and  other  difficulties.  I  would  advise  him  to  attend 
this  higher  technical  school  if  he  can  do  so  without 
too  great  a  sacrifice  of  money,  health,  and  time. 

But  I  would  not  suggest  to  the  young  man  in  finan- 
cial straits  that  he  live  in  a  cold  room  and  upon  insuf- 
ficient food,  at  a  sacrifice  of  mental  and  bodily  health, 
for  the  sake  of  this  technical  school  training. 

When  it  comes  to  the  college  or  university,  we  find 
an  even  greater  diversity  of  opinion.  Some  business 
men  of  mark  feel  that  a  college  education  is  essential 
to  the  flush  of  success,  while  others  consider  it  a  good 
thing,  and  still  others  are  pronouncedly  opposed  to  it, 
the  last  believing  that  four  years  at  college  amount 
to  little  more  than  four  years  of  wasted  time  for  one 
who  is  going  to  take  up  a  business  career. 

A  friend  of  mine,  one  of  the  most  expert  salesmen 
in  the  country,  a  manager  of  salesmen,  and  an  active 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  SALESMAN      235 

partner  in  the  business,  told  me  that  out  of  the  large 
number  of  college  men  starting  in  his  house,  few  of 
them  seemed  to  know  how  to  take  hold  or  to  really 
do  things  in  other  than  an  indifferent  and  mechanical 
way.  He  said  that  his  experience  with  college  men 
proved  to  him  that  a  classical  education  was  likely 
to  be  not  only  useless  but  detrimental  to  success  in 
business. 

Another  business  friend  of  mine,  a  man  with  a 
national  reputation  for  shrewdness  and  for  building 
up  and  maintaining  great  business  enterprises,  is  a 
strong  advocate  of  a  college  course  for  those  who 
would  enter  business.  Although  not  a  graduate  him- 
self, he  put  all  of  his  boys  through  college,  and  as 
soon  as  a  boy  graduated,  he  was  placed  in  one  of  his 
factories,  at  the  very  bottom,  forced  to  wear  over-alls, 
and  to  carry  labor's  dinner  pail.  This  man  has 
employed  many  college  graduates,  and  his  experience 
with  them  is  directly  opposite  from  that  of  my  other 
business  friend. 

But  I  think  the  majority  of  business  men  would 
differ  from  both  of  the  men  I  have  described.  Com- 
paratively few  of  them  would  insist  that  a  college 
education  is  essential,  and  not  many  of  them  would 
condemn  the  college  graduate. 

Personally  I  would  advise  any  young  man,  whether 
he  intends  to  enter  business  or  not,  to  graduate  from 
some  first-class  college  or  university,  provided  he  can 
do  so  without  undue  sacrifice. 


236  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

If  he  is  poor  and  not  physically  robust,  and  must 
fight  to  earn  his  way  through  college  without  proper 
food  or  other  necessities,  I  would  most  emphatically 
condemn  a  college  course  for  him  if  he  intends  to 
enter  business.  I  do  not  believe  it  is  worth  to  him 
what  it  would  cost  him.  But,  if  he  can  afford  it,  and 
can  have  it  without  too  great  a  sacrifice,  I  believe 
that  he  will  be  better  off  in  the  end,  both  socially  and 
in  a  business  way. 

College  membership  gives  one  an  opportunity  to 
make  many  firm  and  lasting  friends.  The  college  men 
are  together  for  four  or  more  years;  they  work  to- 
gether, sleep  together,  and  play  together.  These 
years  establish  a  fraternity  of  the  strongest  kind. 
Graduation  does  not  break  it.  It  remains.  These 
acquaintanceships  and  friendships  are  an  everlasting 
asset,  not  only  a  social  one,  but  one  which  can  be 
applied  to  business. 

Then,  the  very  environment  of  a  good  college  is 
conducive  to  better  citizenship  and  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  high-grade  of  manliness. 

College  never  made  a  fool  or  a  fop  of  a  boy.  If  he 
came  out  one,  he  would  have  been  one  without  the 
intervention  of  the  college.  Certainly  a  college  edu- 
cation cannot  injure  a  salesman,  unless  he  is  bound 
to  be  injured  anyway,  and  then  it  does  not  make  much 
difference  whether  he  is  educated  or  not. 

But  no  man  of  business  judgment  would  dare  to 
assert  that  a  college  education  is  essential  to  good 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  SALESMAN      237 

salesmanship.  Success  may  be  made  with  or  without 
it.  In  many  cases  greater  success  with  it;  in  some 
cases  more  success  without  it.  It  is  simply  a  question 
of  whether  one  desires  a  college  education  and  can 
afford  the  time  and  money. 

For  the  moment  let  me  leave  the  academic  side  of 
education  and  consider  self-teaching.  No  man  is 
equipped  for  a  living  in  salesmanship,  or  in  anything 
else,  no  matter  what  his  school  education  may  be,  if 
he  drops  learning  when  he  leaves  the  school-room  or 
the  campus.  Men  who  amount  to  anything  are  learn- 
ing all  the  time.  The  store  is  their  school-house  and 
the  street  their  college.  There  is  no  place  in  the  world 
for  the  man  who  stops. 

Good  reading,  conversation,  contact  with  men  and 
things,  will  do  as  much  or  more  than  can  any  ed- 
ucational institution,  after  one  has  learned  the 
fundamentals. 

I  say  this  without  disparagement  to  the  school  or 
college,  because  he  who  knows  nothing  of  books  and 
little  of  school  is  either  a  fool  or  is  likely  to  be  one, 
and  so  it  is  with  him  who  knows  only  books  and  has 
never  drawn  from  the  inexhaustible  library  of  the 
great  outdoors. 

Books  and  experience  rightly  mixed  make  the  com- 
pound of  success.  Neither  is  worth  much  of  anything 
without  the  other. 

To  sum  up,  let  me  say  that  probably  the  best  rule 
to  follow  is  to  get  all  the  education  you  can  afford. 


238  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

It  is  not  wasted  time  if  it  is  so  you  can  give  it.  But 
it  is  unprofitable  to  have  too  much  academic  ed- 
ucation if  conditions  present  almost  insurmountable 
obstacles. 

Graduate  from  a  high  school,  anyway,  even  at 
considerable  sacrifice,  and  go  as  much  higher  as  con- 
ditions will  allow,  always  remembering  that  what  you 
get  at  school  is  only  the  beginning  of  your  education. 

Academic  training  better  prepares  you  for  life  by 
making  you  better  able  to  learn,  to  grasp,  to  absorb, 
and  to  utilize. 

This  early  school  education  will  avail  you  little 
unless  you  begin  to  study  harder  after  you  leave  school 
than  you  ever  did  in  the  school-room. 

Adapt  your  school  education  so  far  as  you  can  to 
what  you  are  going  to  do.  One  form  of  academic 
education  is  essential  or  valuable  if  you  are  going  in 
a  certain  direction,  while  another  should  be  taken  if 
your  after  life  is  to  be  different. 

The  establishment  of  specialty  schools  is  growing 
rapidly,  and  in  many  places  one  can  obtain  forms  of 
school  training  somewhat  adapted  to  his  future  work. 
For  the  present,  this  condition  does  not  exist  except 
in  a  few  centers,  and  is  unavailable  to  the  many. 

The  curriculum  of  the  general  school,  although  it 
may  not  be  directly  adaptable  to  your  coming  work, 
gives  you  a  general  and  a  somewhat  broad  education, 
which  you  can  adapt  to  your  necessities. 

Until  the  schools  combine  both  the  general  and  broad 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  SALESMAN       239 

training  with  a  specific  training  especially  adapted  to 
your  needs,  the  best  you  can  do  is  to  obtain  this 
general  education,  adapting  its  generalities  to  your 
requirements. 

This  general  education,  however  far  removed  it 
may  be  from  your  personal  needs,  is  of  consequence, 
because,  while  it  may  not  add  a  stone  to  your  super- 
structure, it  gives  you  a  foundation  to  build  upon. 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE 

APPENDED  are  personally  written  articles  from 
twenty-nine  representative  business  men  of  recog- 
nized success,  and  of  large  and  varied  experience  in 
salesmanship. 

Every  one  of  the  writers  has  been,  or  is,  a  salesman 
of  marked  achievement;  and  all  of  them  are  either 
directly  selling  goods,  or  are  sales-managers,  or  are  in 
charge  of  business  outputs. 

None  of  them  are  theorists.  Every  one  of  them  has 
earned  his  position  in  the  selling  world  by  coming  in 
direct,  active,  and  working  contact  with  buyers  of 
his  class. 

Each  one  tells  his  story  from  his  individual  stand- 
point, and,  collectively,  the  articles  present  a  com- 
posite picture  of  selling  success. 

The  articles  are  printed  as  written,  having  been 
subjected  only  to  proof-reader's  corrections. 

The  articles  appear  alphabetically,  by  company 
names,  so  as  to  avoid  even  the  appearance  of 
partiality. 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     241 


JOHN  R.  AINSLEY 

OF  THE  FIRM  OF  JOHN  R.  AINSLEY  AND  COMPANY, 
IMPORTERS  AND  MANUFACTURERS  OF  HOSIERY, 
UNDERWEAR,  AND  NOTIONS,  BOSTON,  MASS. 

The  principles  of  salesmanship,  as  applied  to  the 
dry-goods  business,  consist  in  mastering  details,  in 
securing  a  knowledge  of  merchandise  and  in  studying 
human  nature.  To  perfect  oneself  in  the  details  re- 
quires perseverance,  utilizing  every  moment  of  time, 
and  an  earnest  desire  to  learn  everything  possible 
from  A  to  Z  regarding  the  make-up  and  use  of  the 
various  articles  offered  for  sale;  to  exercise  care  in 
taking  orders  or  serving  customers,  so  as  to  clearly 
understand  what  is  wanted  in  color,  size,  and  quan- 
tity; to  write  orders  legibly;  and  to  be  correct  and 
precise  as  to  prices,  terms,  and  shipping  directions, 
thus  preventing  mistakes  from  careless  writing  or 
poor  figures  or  misunderstandings;  to  be  honest  as  to 
traveling  expenses,  and  in  the  disposition  of  time  that 
belongs  to  the  employer;  to  handle  samples  with 
judgment  and  care,  knowing  that  they  cost  money, 
and  to  be  replaced  means  added  expense;  to  be  cor- 
rect in  deportment,  appearance,  and  habits;  and  to 
have  a  methodical  way  of  doing  everything  in  a  proper 
way,  at  the  proper  time,  and  in  the  proper  place. 

A  knowledge  of  merchandise  is  now  absolutely  nec- 
essary, no  half-way  business  will  pass  muster.  High 


242  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

schools  of  commerce,  technical  schools,  and  trade 
pamphlets  are  doing  much  towards  supplying  in- 
formation about  merchandise,  and  buyers,  as  a  rule, 
are  well  posted  on  "what's  what,"  so  that  a  salesman 
must  know  what  he  has  to  offer,  how  to  state  his 
story,  how  to  make  comparisons  as  to  quality  and 
price,  and  must  inspire  confidence  in  himself,  in  his 
story,  in  his  goods,  and  in  his  firm,  and  he  must  study 
character,  know  how  to  approach  individuals  (there 
are  no  two  alike),  and  how  to  adapt  himself  to  all 
sorts  of  people. 

He  must  make  himself  right  with  his  prospective 
customers,  and  prove  to  them  that  his  word  is  as  good 
as  his  bond,  and  that  the  maxim,  "All  wool  and  a 
yard  wide,"  can  be  figuratively  applied  to  the  man  as 
well  as  to  the  merchandise. 

Brilliancy  and  braggadocio  don't  count;  but  plain, 
honest,  hard  work  does  the  business  every  time. 

FRED  L.  HOWARD 

MEMBER  OF  THE  FIRM  OF  C.  A.  BROWNING  AND 
COMPANY,  WHOLESALE  MILLINERY  AND  SILK, 
BOSTON,  MASS.;  PRESIDENT,  BOSTON  CREDIT 
MEN'S  ASSOCIATION 

While  salesmen  in  general  are  included  in  the  few 
thoughts  here  set  down,  it  is  the  wholesale  and  traveling 
distributer  of  merchandise  who  is  especially  in  mind. 

The  great  influence  of  such  persons  upon  the  traffic 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     243 

of  the  world,  the  ethics  of  trade,  and  even  the  morals  of 
life  in  general,  make  them  not  only  an  important  consid- 
eration, but  quite  an  interesting  sociological  proposition. 

We  sometimes  hear  of  "Born  Salesmen,"  and  born 
salesmen  there  may  be,  but  Salesmanship  is  the  birth- 
right of  no  one.  Salesmanship  is  acquired,  and  one 
can  no  more  be  born  with  that  acquisition  than  he 
can  be  born  educated.  It  is  true  that  some  are  born 
with  the  selling  talent  and  take  to  trading  naturally, 
but  the  ethics  of  trade,  upon  which  all  success  in  sell- 
ing is  based,  must  be  studied  to  be  understood  and 
may  be  acquired  by  all. 

As  between  the  possessor  of  much  talent  and  little 
moral  sense,  and  one  of  little  selling  talent  and  a 
keen  sense  of  the  ethics  of  trade,  much  more  is  to  be 
expected  of  the  latter,  in  the  end.  With  the  talent, 
or  gift,  of  selling  in  the  highest  degree,  one  may  prove 
a  sad  failure  as  a  salesman,  as  plentiful  examples  show. 

Even  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  goods  to  be 
sold,  a  good  understanding  of  human  nature,  patience, 
perseverance,  industry,  and  the  valuable  possession  of 
a  winning  personality,  no  one  can  achieve  either  great 
or  permanent  success  as  a  salesman,  without  a  sense 
of  honor  and  justice  and  the  constant  practice  of 
these  principles. 

Salesmanship  is  so  much  a  matter  of  morals,  that 
to  be  a  successful  salesman  is  to  be  an  upright  man. 

The  time  is  not  confined  to  the  memory  of  the  very 
aged,  when  "the  best  end  of  the  bargain"  theory  was 


244  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

the  prevailing  policy  in  selling  goods.  Somewhat 
longer  ago,  a  great  English  writer's  comment  on  com- 
merce in  his  time  was  that  "  honor  sinks  where  com- 
merce long  prevails."  More  and  more  the  prevailing 
policy  is  coming  to  be  "a  square  deal"  for  all. 

It  was  the  merchant  prince,  A.  T.  Stewart,  who 
claimed  that  the  greatest  factor  in  his  success  was  the 
invariable  practice  of  giving  value  received. 

Many  men,  who  think  they  are  struggling  against 
Fate,  are  merely  struggling  against  the  effect  of  a 
poor  policy,  or  the  lack  of  any  policy  at  all,  upon 
which  to  base  the  conduct  of  their  business.  To  drop 
a  poor  policy,  to  learn  to  adopt  a  good  one,  will  gen- 
erally turn  defeat  into  success. 

It  is  one  of  the  best  policies  for  every  salesman  to 
remember  that  his  own  success  must  come  through 
the  success  of  his  customers,  and  that  every  advantage 
he  takes  at  their  expense  is,  in  the  end,  bound  to  be  an 
injury  to  himself.  Let  him  never  forget  the  fable  of 
"the  goose  and  the  golden  eggs,"  that  his  trade  is  the 
goose  that  lays  the  golden  eggs  for  him,  and  that,  in 
his  own  interest,  if  for  no  higher  reason,  his  customers' 
interests  must  be  carefully  conserved  and  assisted  in 
every  reasonable  way  possible. 

The  opposite  course  may  at  first  appear  to  bring 
quicker  and  better  results,  but  it  will  limit  him  to 
few  transactions  with  such  customers,  narrow  his 
field  of  opportunity  day  by  day,  and  the  small  ad- 
vantage temporarily  gained  will  cost  him  the  con" 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     245 

fidence  of  the  buyers  he  might  have  profitably  retained 
for  many  years,  and  also  cost  him  the  loss  of  his  own 
self-respect. 

A  good  salesman  must  be  a  good  sport.  He  must  be 
a  good  loser  as  well  as  a  good  winner.  He  must  learn 
to  wait  as  well  as  to  work,  and  if  he  is  working  along 
wise,  upright,  honorable  lines,  he  is  sure  to  win,  and 
his  success  will  be  permanent. 

It  is  an  unfortunate  salesman  who  does  not  appre- 
ciate the  dignity  of  his  work.  The  seller  of  merchan- 
dise is  a  factor  of  great  consequence  in  the  enormous 
and  ever-increasing  volume  of  business  of  the  world. 
It  is  to  him  the  importer,  manufacturer,  and  whole- 
saler look  for  the  consummating  results  of  their  labor. 
It  is  largely  upon  him  that  the  reputation  of  his  house 
depends,  and  the  nature  of  the  relations  between  his 
employer  and  the  trade  is  largely  in  his  hands. 

It  is  also  an  unfortunate  salesman  who  sees  nothing 
in  his  business  but  labor  for  gain  and  gain  for  labor. 

His  opportunities  for  helpfulness,  for  doing  good 
while  doing  business,  are  on  every  hand.  The  poor 
manager,  the  unwise  buyer,  the  inexperienced  and 
the  discouraged  shopkeeper,  are  all  opportunities  in 
his  life  for  helpfulness,  which,  if  improved,  will  not 
only  insure  business  success  to  himself,  but  make  his 
work  a  joy,  and  his  life  worth  living.  To  paraphrase 
the  poet  a  little: 

Where  all  is  only  a  selfish  gain 
7T  is  useless  to  excel. 


246  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 


FRANK  E.  HILL 

MANAGER,  BROWNING,  KING  AND  COMPANY, 
CLOTHIERS,  NEW  YORK  CITY 

The  selling  of  merchandise  is  not  only  a  pleasant, 
but  an  easy  task.  There  are  three  important  factors 
of  salesmanship,  namely,  to  read  human  nature  at 
a  glance,  having  a  keen  interest  in  the  merchandise, 
together  with  prompt  and  efficient  service  to  the 
customer. 

The  great  mistake  which  is  often  made  in  selling 
goods  is  trying  to  persuade  a  customer  to  take  an 
article  which  he  does  not  care  for.  This,  in  itself,  is 
poor  salesmanship,  and  while  there  are  many  defini- 
tions of  salesmanship,  and  what  constitutes  a  sales- 
man, I  believe  the  man  who  builds  up  the  business 
and  is  able  to  take  care  of  it  from  season  to  season  is 
the  man  who  would  secure  the  most  votes  in  a  com- 
petition on  salesmanship. 

It  was  in  the  store  of  Marshall  Field  &  Co.  that  I 
had  the  opportunity  to  study  human  nature  and 
salespeople.  I  made  application  to  Mr.  Selfridge,  who 
was  at  that  time  a  manager  of  the  retail  store,  and 
now  a  merchant  of  London,  for  a  position  as  salesman 
in  one  of  his  departments.  In  referring  to  one  of  his 
best  salesmen,  he  said:  "Give  me  two  men  as  good 
as  he  is  and  you  may  have  him." 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     247 

In  reply  to  my  question  as  to  why  he  considered 
him  so  good,  he  answered:  "He  could  serve  more 
than  one  customer  at  a  time,  used  excellent  judgment 
in  introducing  the  merchandise,  and  the  customers 
were  pleased  with  his  attention." 

Special  attention  to  customers,  without  giving  the 
impression  that  you  are  too  eager  to  make  the  sale  by 
an  over-display  of  merchandise,  is  appreciated.  This 
suggests  the  thought  that  a  customer  should  never  be 
allowed  to  leave  your  store  dissatisfied,  and  a  sales- 
man will  promptly  report  to  the  manager  any  com- 
plaint a  customer  may  have.  These  matters  should 
be  handled  with  promptitude  and  void  of  argument 
in  adjusting  a  claim,  for  there  is  no  better  advertise- 
ment for  a  firm  than  a  well-pleased  customer. 

The  development  of  young  people  to  assume  posi- 
tions as  salespeople  requires  much  patience  and  care- 
ful instruction  from  their  beginning  until  they  are 
given  a  sales-book.  I  regret  space  will  not  permit  my 
explaining  in  detail  the  experience  in  this  particular 
part  of  mercantile  life,  as  the  experiences  are  so  varied 
that  what  would  fit  one  case  would  prove  entirely  out 
of  place  in  another. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  try  to  have  young  minds  absorb 
the  fundamental  principles,  even  in  selling  goods,  in 
a  short  space  of  time;  but  careful  instruction  at  a 
well-defined  time,  say,  immediately  after  they  have 
served  a  customer,  and  you  saw  that  the  customer 
was  not  entirely  satisfied  with  the  manner  in  which 


248  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

the  goods  were  presented  or  with  the  knowledge  the 
salesman  seemed  to  have  of  the  merchandise;  then  is 
the  time  to  correct  them,  and  if  they  are  quick  to  ab- 
sorb, it  will  not  happen  the  second  time. 

It  often  occurs  that  the  salesman  will  say  "No" 
(when  a  customer  asks  for  some  specified  article),  "I 
am  unable  to  give  you  that,"  instead  of  introducing 
something  which  is  a  little  superior,  or  even  a  little 
less  in  price,  where  this  same  customer  was  given  to 
another  salesman,  and  in  five  minutes  made  a  pur- 
chase of  items  which  were  already  in  the  store,  but 
had  not  been  shown.  This  would  come  under  the 
point  of  good  salesmanship. 


W.  ATLEE  BURPEE 

HEAD  OP  THE  FIRM  OF  W.  ATLEE  BURPEE  AND 
COMPANY,  GROWERS  OP  SEEDS,  PHILADEL- 
PHIA, PA. 

One  basic  requirement  for  a  successful  salesman, 
to-day,  is  absolute  integrity  and  honesty.  He  must 
neither  lie  nor  misrepresent  in  any  way,  and  naturally 
he  cannot  afford  to  be  connected  with  a  house  that 
would  permit  misrepresentation,  either  as  to  quality 
or  value  of  goods.  This  may  not  have  been  true  a 
generation  ago,  but  the  standard  of  business  ethics 
has  advanced  so  steadily  that  now  no  house  (and  no 
salesman)  can  be  permanently  successful  unless  they 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     249 

gain  (and  deserve)  a  reputation  for  plain  truth- 
telling  and  square-dealing. 

Salesmanship  to-day,  being  upon  a  higher  plane,  is 
more  attractive  and  offers  better  inducements  to 
young  men  than  ever  before.  The  salesman  must,  of 
course,  understand  thoroughly  the  character  of  the 
goods  he  is  offering,  and  their  value.  He  must  be 
imbued  with  a  spirit  of  loyalty,  and  really  believe  that 
"our  house  can  do  no  wrong,"  at  least  intentionally. 
He  must  feel  himself,  —  and  thus  impart  to  his  cus- 
tomers, —  the  confidence,  that  were  he  the  buyer  in- 
stead of  seller,  he  would  buy  from  the  house  for  which 
he  is  selling. 

The  methods  of  successful  business,  to-day,  are  not 
based  upon  the  ancient  idea  of  "trying  to  get  the 
better  of  the  other  fellow."  In  a  broad  sense,  the  in- 
terests of  buyer  and  seller,  instead  of  being  antago- 
nistical,  are  really  mutual.  It  is  only  by  "repeat 
orders"  from  satisfied  customers  (whether  at  whole- 
sale or  retail)  that  it  is  possible  to  maintain  a  pros- 
perous business. 

Rather  than  dwell  upon  other  important  requisites 
of  good  salesmanship,  perhaps  it  would  be  more  sug- 
gestive to  the  readers  to  state  "one  reason  why"  a 
dozen  years  ago  we  ceased  to  be  represented  "on  the 
road,"  and  became  at  wholesale,  as  we  had  always  been 
at  retail,  "exclusively  a  mail-order  house." 

A  traveler  would  send  in  orders  for  peas,  beans,  and 
other  seeds  at  "cut"  prices,  and  when  we  protested, 


250  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

would  offer  the  excuse  that  so-and-so  were  quoting 
those  prices.  My  instructions  would  be,  that  while 
you  must  never  run  down  a  competitor,  yet  you 
should  maintain  the  position  that  you  were  not  selling 
Smith's  or  Brown's,  but  Burpee's  seeds,  and  you  knew 
that  Burpee's  seeds  were  worth  the  prices  asked;  they 
would  bring  more  at  retail  and  make  satisfied  cus- 
tomers. In  other  words,  in  such  a  business  as  garden 
seeds,  it  would  pay  to  handle  only  the  best  grades 
possible  to  produce,  and  these  could  not  be  sold  at 
the  prices  of  " cheap  seeds"  to  ''quality-buyers."  I 
found  it  almost  impossible,  then,  to  train  a  salesman 
to  be  willing  to  lose  an  order  rather  than  attempt  to 
meet  competition  merely  in  price.  This  may  have 
been  as  much  my  fault  as  that  of  our  salesmen.  To-day, 
it  would  be  easier  for  both  of  us. 

However,  for  the  past  decade,  we  have  reiterated 
in  millions  of  catalogues  (our  "Silent  Salesmen")  the 
fact  that: 

We  travel  many  thousands  of  miles  each  season  to 
inspect  growing  crops,  which  are  produced  for  us 
under  special  contracts  throughout  America  and 
Europe,  but  never  travel  a  single  mile  to  solicit  an 
order.  And  yet  we  want  your  trade,  if  you  can  ap- 
preciate the  value  of  quality  in  seeds. 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     251 

MARCH  G.  BENNETT 

GENERAL  MANAGER,  SAMUEL  CABOT,  INC.,  MANU- 
FACTURING CHEMISTS,  "CREOSOTE  SHINGLE 
STAINS,"  BOSTON,  MASS. 

We  all  agree  that  the  road  to  successful  salesman- 
ship, like  that  to  other  heights  of  achievement,  is  un- 
known, but  I  believe  that  the  surest  and  best  road 
that  we  do  know,  in  this  or  any  other  vocation,  is  hard 
work,  intelligent,  courageous,  and  persevering. 

I  disagree  with  the  old  saying  that  "  salesmen  are 
born,  not  made."  Like  most  old  sayings,  it  is  only  a 
half  truth,  and  is  discouraging. 

Granted  that  fluency,  geniality,  and  assurance  are 
important  qualifications,  it  is  still  true  that  they  alone 
cannot  make  a  successful  salesman  (or  politician),  and 
the  man  who  possesses  these  qualities  in  abundance  is 
less  likely  to  be  a  hard  worker,  a  student  of  his  busi- 
ness, and  a  trained  expert  in  his  line,  than  the  man 
with  a  smaller  equipment  of  these  superficial  advan- 
tages, because  the  latter  finds  that  he  cannot  rely  en- 
tirely upon  his  personality,  as  the  other  man  is  apt  to 
do,  but  must  work  for  his  success. 

In  every  line,  —  business,  politics,  law,  and  ath- 
letics, —  we  see  numerous  examples  of  men  who  seem 
to  have  been  especially  equipped  by  Nature  for  suc- 
cess distanced  by  others  whose  one  advantage  over 
them  is  that  genius  which  is  the  capacity  for  hard  work. 


252  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

The  combination  of  these  qualifications,  of  course, 
produces  the  brilliant  success  that  establishes  our 
standards,  and,  if  we  argue  solely  from  such  examples, 
a  successful  salesman  must  possess  all  the  qualifica- 
tions which  Dr.  Johnson  required  to  make  a  poet,  and 
then  some.  But,  in  my  judgment,  the  average  intelli- 
gent young  man  who  wishes  to  become  a  salesman 
can  succeed  by  hard  work,  using  his  brains  to  study 
his  business  and  his  customers  and  to  sustain  his 
courage.  He  can  educate  himself  in  the  science  and 
diplomacy  of  his  calling.  He  will  learn  all  those  stand- 
ard maxims,  —  never  to  misrepresent  his  goods,  never 
to  really  lose  his  temper,  to  restrain  an  eager  customer 
from  buying  too  heavily  a  line  that  is  not  adapted  for 
his  trade,  to  force  goods  upon  a  reluctant  customer 
that  he  knows  will  sell,  never  to  forget  that  unless  he  is 
loyally  representing  his  house  he  is  not  making  head- 
way; and,  more,  he  can  acquire  a  reputation  for  com- 
plete knowledge  of  his  business  that  will  sell  goods 
and  recommend  him  for  promotion.  When  promotion 
comes  to  such  a  man,  he  is  equipped  for  it,  because  he 
has  made  himself  competent  by  hard  work  directed  by 
intelligence. 

Therefore,  without  denying  the  great  benefit  of  cer- 
tain accidental  talents,  I  believe  that  no  young  man 
who  wishes  to  become  a  salesman  need  be  discouraged 
if  he  lacks  those  talents  in  abundance,  but  has  brains 
and  force. 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     253 


HERBERT  M.  SEAVER 

SALESMAN,    COBB,    BATES    AND    YERXA    COMPANY, 
WHOLESALE    AND    RETAIL    GROCERS,    BOSTON, 

MASS. 

The  first  requisite  to  become  a  good  salesman  is  to 
be  honest,  not  only  with  your  employer,  but  with 
yourself  as  well.  Always  be  obliging  and  courteous, 
never  familiar.  Never  make  a  promise  that  will  be 
doubtful  to  fulfill.  A  good  memory  is  a  very  great 
asset. 

Cultivate  the  ability  to  recognize  customers  and 
call  them  by  name.  Familiarize  yourself  with  original 
packages  and  their  contents. 

Study  prices,  so  that  at  any  time  you  can  readily 
quote  them. 

Enable  yourself  to  write  swiftly  and  legibly. 

Never  let  your  customers  feel  that  you  are  in  a 
hurry;  your  time  should  belong  to  them. 

Never  watch  the  clock.  The  moment  you  enter 
the  employ  of  a  firm,  you  should  always  be  willing  to 
do  a  little  more  than  is  stipulated  in  the  agreement,  if 
you  aspire  to  grow  in  their  esteem. 

Many  times  you  will  find  it  impossible  to  go  to 
your  meals  on  time;  and,  perhaps,  you  will  find  it 
advantageous  to  your  future  interests  to  return  before 
your  meal  hour  has  passed. 


254  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

Much  more  might  be  said,  but,  in  my  opinion,  a 
man  with  the  foregoing  qualities  would  be  a  desirable 
salesman. 

JAMES  G.  BERRIEN 

NEW  ENGLAND  MANAGER,  "COLLIER'S  WEEKLY," 
NEW  YORK  CITY 

"Zogbaum  works  with  a  pencil:  I  do  things  with  a 
pen  — 

"But  you  sit  up  in  a  conning  tower  bossing  ten 
thousand  men." 

So  says  Mr.  Kipling,  with  a  little  touch  of  envy 
mixed  with  admiration,  to  one  of  our  admirals. 

It  all  depends  upon  the  viewpoint  as  to  how  much 
glory  a  man  can  descry  in  his  work.  There  is  a  certain 
class  of  servants  in  England  that  counts  it  a  glory 
when  a  son  adopts  his  father's  calling,  and  it  is  a 
glory  to  them.  Four  or  five  generations  trained  to 
wait  on  others  have  given  England  the  best  servants 
in  the  world.  Four  or  five  generations  of  skilled 
laborers  have  given  England  the  reputation  of  mak- 
ing the  finest  guns  in  the  world.  There  is  a  touch  and 
feel  and  balance  in  an  English  gun  that  is  the  inher- 
itance of  fathers',  grandfathers',  and  great-grand- 
fathers' skill  passed  on.  It  is  inimitable. 

So,  in  this  country,  cases  might  be  cited  of  succeed- 
ing generations  taking  up  the  same  calling,  —  law, 
ministry,  medicine,  merchandising. 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     255 

There  is  a  business  which  has  grown  to  enormous 
proportions  in  this  country  in  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty 
years.  It  is  too  young  a  business  to  have  engaged  the 
energies  of  grandfathers,  and  there  are  very  few  fathers 
whose  sons  are  old  enough  as  yet  to  take  up  the  same 
calling.  It  is  the  business,  —  some  prefer  calling  it  a 
profession,  —  of  advertising. 

There  is  coming  a  time  when  fathers,  now  engaged 
in  the  profession  of  law  or  medicine  or  in  mercantile 
pursuits,  will  be  as  proud  to  have  their  sons  take  up 
this  calling  as  they  now  are  to  have  them  go  through 
college  and  take  up  a  profession. 

There  is  no  more  fascinating  and  absorbing  business 
open  to  man.  It  is  a  young  man's  business.  "  Kipling 
does  things  with  a  pen  —  the  admiral  bosses  ten  thou- 
sand men."  The  editor  has  his  influence  on  the  thoughts 
of  his  fellow-men.  The  advertising  man  furnishes  the 
sinews  by  which  the  editor  is  able  to  carry  on  his  work 
of  moulding  public  opinion.  He  makes  barren  lands 
give  place  to  new  factories.  He  gives  more  than  a 
living  to  thousands  and  thousands  of  people.  Ten 
years  ago,  the  only  place  you  could  get  a  certain 
article  was  over  the  counter  of  a  little  retail  druggist 
in  Cleveland.  Four  or  five  thousand  people  to-day 
owe  their  living  to  the  first  small  advertisement  for 
this  product  placed  in  a  national  paper  within  the  last 
ten  years. 

The  advertising  man  is  not  restricted  in  his  appeal 
to  one  audience.  If  necessary,  he  can  talk  through  all 


256  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

the  magazines,  all  the  newspapers,  the  bill-boards,  the 
street  cars,  the  mails;  every  channel  of  publicity  is 
open  to  him  to  carry  the  news  of  his  wares,  to  mould 
public  opinion  to  believe  in  the  product  he  is  selling. 

Can  there  be  any  more  inviting  field  for  a  young 
man  of  enthusiasm?  To  tell  of  new  products  and 
mould  opinion  regarding  merchandise  of  all  sorts;  to 
help  editors  reach  vaster  audiences  through  furnishing 
funds  with  which  to  gain  greater  circulation;  to  create 
new  work  for  the  workers  of  the  world  by  widening 
markets;  to  minister  to  declining  or  stagnant  enter- 
prises, giving  them  new  life;  to  turn  barren  fields  into 
whirring  homes  of  industry;  to  reduce  the  cost  of  sell- 
ing goods  in  the  line  from  the  manufacturer  to  the 
ultimate  consumer;  —  these  are  indeed  substantial 
contributions  in  the  way  of  service. 

No  profession  offers  better  inducements  to  brains 
and  personality.  These  two  things  are  prerequisites 
of  advertising,  for  one  must  have  brains  enough  to  see 
the  vision  of  widening  trade  and  deepening  the  channels 
of  opinion,  and  one  must  also  have  the  force  and  per- 
sonality to  show  this  vision  to  the  manufacturer;  and, 
having  convinced  him,  he  must  have  the  endurance 
and  courage  to  make  the  vision  a  vital  truth. 

The  man  who  swings  an  arch  across  a  mile-deep 
gulf,  the  man  who  rides  his  chariot  over  the  avenues 
of  the  air,  the  explorer,  —  how  can  we  bring  them 
under  one  category  except  as  pioneers?  The  regions 
of  advertising  have  as  yet  been  scarcely  staked  out, 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     257 

and  the  need  of  recruits  is  heard  on  every  side.  It  is 
the  business  of  life  we  are  in,  and  our  pioneers  must 
be  intelligent,  persistent,  and  wide-visioned. 

There  are  two  types  of  sellers  of  advertising,  as 
there  are  two  types  of  salesmen  in  every  line,  —  the 
man  who  thinks  and  the  other  kind.  The  man  who 
feels  the  lure  of  the  business,  but  lacks  the  imagina- 
tion and  brains,  is  being  rapidly  displaced.  The  man 
who  goes  to  a  manufacturer  and  asks,  "Anything  for 
my  paper  to-day?"  is  being  displaced  by  the  man  who 
constructs  a  concrete  plan  of  advertising  and  sells  it 
as  a  proposition  worthy  of  the  investment  of  the  man- 
ufacturer's hard-earned  money. 

To  be  a  salesman  of  advertising,  one  must  answer 
to  the  following  tests:  He  must  have  the  inclination 
and  the  ability  to  create  ideas  of  such  sensible  fiber 
that  they  will  invite  the  attention  of  the  prospective 
buyer.  He  must  be  able  to  win  the  prospective  buyer's 
utmost  confidence,  for  in  no  business  is  there  a  larger 
call  on  the  faith  of  the  buyer.  He  must  be  of  such 
high  personal  integrity  that  he  will  not  build  a  false 
plan  for  immediate  gain,  and  he  must  have  horse- 
sense  enough  to  know  that  the  creations  of  his  mind 
have  their  basis  in  sound  principles.  And  with  these 
special  requirements,  he  must  have  all  the  fundamental 
requirements  of  a  salesman,  such  as  enthusiasm,  sin- 
cerity, persistence;  and  each  of  these  essentials  he 
must  have  developed  to  an  unusual  degree. 


258  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 


AUSTIN  H.  DECATUR 

PRESIDENT,  DECATUR  AND  HOPKINS  COMPANY, 
WHOLESALE  HARDWARE,  BOSTON,  MASS. 

In  my  opinion,  the  requisites  for  a  good  salesman 
are  character,  address,  tact,  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
the  article  to  be  sold,  and  enthusiasm. 

Character.  "Character  is  not  determined  by  a 
single  act,  but  by  habitual  conduct."  It  is  not  formed 
in  a  day,  nor  can  it  be  purchased  or  inherited,  but 
must  be  planted  in  early  life,  and  cultivated  and 
ripened  into  a  manhood  which  will  win  the  confidence 
of  all  with  whom  it  comes  in  contact.  Confidence  in 
the  seller  makes  it  easy  for  both  buyer  and  seller. 
When  a  buyer  has  no  confidence  in  the  seller,  the 
seller's  usefulness  is  lost,  and  the  goods  must  sell 
themselves  or  remain  unsold. 

Address.  "Address  is  needed  to  gain  the  attention 
of  the  buyer  and  hold  it  until  the  acquaintance  is 
made,  and  then  character  or  the  man  will  hold  the 
confidence  of  the  buyer."  A  salesman  cannot  be  too 
particular  about  his  general  appearance  and  personal 
address. 

Tact.  "Tact  is  the  judicious  use  of  one's  power  at 
the  right  time."  No  salesman  ever  accomplished  very 
much  without  being  tactful.  There  are  all  kinds  of 
people  to  deal  with,  and  one  must  be  able  to  adapt 
himself  to  the  person  and  condition. 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     259 

All  the  foregoing  are  important  requisites  for  a 
salesman,  but  they  are  all  lost  sight  of  in  comparison 
with  a  knowledge  of  the  goods  or  articles  to  be  sold, 
and  this  knowledge  can  be  obtained  only  by  study  and 
hard  work.  If  it  be  a  general  line  of  goods,  one  must 
begin  in  boyhood  and  spend  years  of  time  in  learning, 
not  only  the  goods  to  be  sold,  but  the  general  business 
policy  or  management,  in  order  that  he  may  be  in 
touch  with  the  whole  situation,  and  do  justice,  not 
only  to  his  employer,  but  to  his  customer. 

My  experience  with  salesmen  is  that  no  one  has 
ever  been  able  to  learn  two  or  more  kinds  of  business, 
and  be  an  expert  at  either.  Life  is  not  long  enough  to 
master  and  make  a  success  of  many  things.  We  must 
make  a  choice  of  some  one  thing,  and  stick  to  it  until 
we  win,  and  if  we  are  enthusiastic  and  happy,  we  are 
sure  to  win. 

One  may  know  all  about  the  goods  he  wishes  to  sell, 
and  yet  not  meet  with  any  great  degree  of  success, 
unless  he  is  enthusiastic  and  able  to  impart  this  en- 
thusiasm to  the  other  fellow.  No  young  man  of  to-day 
can  succeed  to  any  great  extent  who  is  not  enthusiastic 
in  his  business  or  occupation.  In  this  day  of  sharp 
competition,  half-hearted,  indifferent  methods  will  not 
suffice. 

To  sum  up  the  subject,  I  feel  that  knowledge  of  the 
articles  to  be  sold,  and  knowledge  of  the  business  with 
which  one  is  connected,  are  the  first  great  requisites; 
and  enthusiasm  which  springs  from  loyalty  to  the  em- 


260  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

ployer  or  manager  of  the  sales-department,  and  for 
the  merit  in  the  article  itself,  is  of  equal  importance. 
To  sum  it  all  up,  the  secret  of  success  in  selling  goods, 
as  well  as  in  any  other  occupation  in  life,  is  WORK. 
The  world  is  full  of  people  who  are  too  proud  to  beg, 
too  honest  to  steal,  and  too  lazy  to  work;  they  are  the 
most  to  be  pitied  of  any  class. 

FRED  H.  TUCKER 

MEMBER    OF   THE    FIRM    OF    FARLEY,   HARVEY  AND 
COMPANY,    WHOLESALE    DRY    GOODS,    BOSTON, 

MASS. 

Selling  goods  successfully  is  an  art,  and  one  that 
needs  to  be  studied  as  carefully  as  any  of  the  so-called 
"  higher  arts."  The  necessary  preparation  may  be 
considered  under  three  heads: 

Knowledge  of  yourself. 

Knowledge  of  your  goods. 

Knowledge  of  your  customer. 

To  know  yourself,  wherein  your  greatest  powers  of 
persuasion  lie,  what  your  limitations  are;  to  learn  to 
use  your  best  weapons  and  discard  your  weaker  ones; 
and  to  always  be  yourself  and  not  try  to  be  an  imita- 
tion of  some  one  else;  are  of  first  importance. 

Equally  important  is  it  that  you  should  know  as 
much  as  possible  about  what  you  have  to  sell.  The 
art  student  must  spend  weary  years  studying  anatomy, 
architecture,  or  engineering,  according  to  the  subject 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     261 

he  is  to  paint.  So  must  the  salesman  study,  that  he 
may  say,  as  did  the  successful  German  who  was  asked 
why  his  sales  were  so  much  larger  than  his  compet- 
itors', "No  man  can  ask  me  a  question  about  my 
goods  that  I  cannot  answer." 

This  leads  to  the  third  important  factor  in  a  sales- 
man's success:  "Know  your  customer."  Study  him 
as  carefully  as  a  general  studies  the  fortifications  he 
hopes  to  storm  successfully.  Find  out  the  conditions 
that  are  likely  to  make  him  want  your  goods,  also 
those  that  will  work  against  you.  Study  his  tempera- 
ment. If  you  have  an  opportunity,  learn  all  you  can 
about  him  before  you  meet  him,  —  his  outside  in- 
terests, as  well  as  his  business  interests.  Then,  and 
only  then,  are  you  fully  prepared  to  meet  him  to  the 
best  advantage. 

With  these  foundations  well  laid,  last,  but  not  least, 
cultivate  your  imagination,  —  for  it  is  a  most  potent 
factor.  If  selling  to  a  retail  dealer,  try  to  see  in  your 
mind  the  goods  in  his  window  and  on  his  counters; 
see  the  people  admiring  and  buying  them;  or,  if  you 
are  selling  to  a  consumer,  see  him  in  your  imagination 
wearing  or  using  your  goods  with  pleasure  or  profit  to 
himself.  Get  the  picture  fixed  so  well  in  your  mind 
that  you  can  make  the  customer  see  it,  and  your  sale 
is  made. 

William  Morris  has  said:  "Art  is  the  expression  of 
a  man's  joy  in  his  work."  This  is  as  true  of  the  well- 
equipped  salesman  as  of  other  artists. 


262  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

Know  yourself,  know  your  goods,  and  know  your 
customer;  and  with  plenty  of  hard  work  you  will  suc- 
ceed and  get  real  pleasure  from  your  work.  Be  an 
artist  in  your  business. 

EMILE  PICKHARDT 

SALES-MANAGER,  GEORGE  FROST  COMPANY,  MANU- 
FACTURERS OF  HOSE  SUPPORTERS  AND  "BOSTON 
GARTERS,"  BOSTON,  MASS. 

I  once  asked  a  young  lady,  highly  successful  in 
growing  flowers,  as  to  her  methods.  She  replied: 
"I'll  tell  you  a  secret,  —  don't  give  it  away.  You 
must  just  love  them."  In  disregarding  the  young 
lady's  injunction  not  to  "give  it  away,"  I  am  giving 
away  at  the  same  time  at  least  one  of  the  secrets  of 
successful  salesmanship :  The  salesman  must  "just  love " 
his  work. 

So  much  has  been  said  on  this  topic  by  able  sales- 
men that  discursive  detail  would  seem  superfluous, 
but  it  may  remain  to  be  noted  that  the  old  saying, 
"Salesmen  are  born,  not  made,"  is  true  only  in  so  far 
as  ancestral  qualities  of  mind  and  personality  are  con- 
cerned. Some  dominant  factors  of  success  in  this 
calling  are  simply  acquired  largely  by  discipline  and 
training  in  childhood  and  adolescence,  but  more  par- 
ticularly by  actual  experience  on  the  road. 

Naturally,  under  the  head  of  inherited  qualities, 
come  native  enthusiasm,  patience,  and  a  kindly  dis- 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     263 

position.  These  last-named  factors  are,  in  themselves, 
almost  fundamental.  The  "I  don't  care,"  or  "That 
be  hanged,"  spirit  is,  of  course,  fatal  to  success.  The 
man  who  "goes  in  to  win,"  regardless  of  educational, 
mental,  physical,  or  social  handicap,  is  bound  to  make 
his  calling  at  least  a  comparative  success,  sooner  or 
later. 

It  is  self-evident  that  to  insure  the  most  permanent 
success  in  this  vocation,  the  most  faithful  and  pains- 
taking attention  to  detail  is  imperative.  Every  promise 
must  be  kept.  No  matter  how  small  a  customer  is,  he 
must  be  treated  with  exactly  the  same  courtesy  and 
consideration  as  a  large  one.  He  may  grow,  and  if  you 
help  him,  he  will  help  you. 

Absolute  honesty  is  a  first  requisite  in  truly  suc- 
cessful salesmanship.  But  to  be  honest  with  one's 
trade,  a  salesman  must  believe  in  his  own  goods. 
Every  salesman  should  make  himself  thoroughly 
familiar  with  all  points  of  excellence  of  his  line  and 
never  allow  his  faith  in  his  house  to  waiver.  Rather 
than  this,  it  were  better  to  seek  other  connections.  He 
should,  also,  have  constantly  in  view  the  improvement 
of  his  line  and  keep  his  house  informed  of  what  is 
"doing,"  so  that  they  can,  by  comparison  with  other 
goods,  keep  abreast  of  the  times  with  theirs. 

Some  salesmen  have  such  an  abundant  fund  of  en- 
thusiasm that  they  can  sell  almost  anything;  but, 
while  enthusiasm  is  an  all-important  factor,  it  does 
not  necessarily  in  itself  constitute  salesmanship;  and, 


264  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

where  there  is  danger  of  its  leading  to  misrepresenta- 
tion, it  had  better  be  curbed.  Nevertheless,  true  en- 
thusiasm, when  based  on  absolute  faith  in  one's  goods 
and  the  integrity  of  one's  house,  is  as  contagious  as 
the  measles,  and  when  a  buyer  and  his  department 
force  have  caught  it  from  a  salesman  it  usually  lasts 
a  good  while.  I  have  known  such  cases  of  contagion 
to  be  incurable. 

Finally,  a  salesman  must  be  a  gentleman,  whether 
by  nature  or  by  training,  —  not  a  gentleman  merely 
in  outward  appearance  and  deportment,  but  also  "at 
heart."  This  is  perhaps  the  most  important  thing  of 
all.  It  goes  deep  down  under  the  surface  and  into  the 
very  nature  of  things.  There  is  something  almost 
magical  about  the  personality  of  a  right-thinking, 
broad-minded  gentleman,  who  has  taken  his  degree 
not  only  in  mere  goodness,  virtue,  and  form,  but  who 
has  through  the  great  tests  of  life  been  enabled  to 
enter  into  the  heart  of  humanity,  and,  by  this  process, 
come  out  beyond  and  above  the  mere  ethical  code, 
and  is  daily  living  in  that  well-spring  of  love  for  and 
sympathy  with  all  human  kind  which  makes  him  at 
once  kin  with  all  Heaven  and  Earth. 

A  salesman  who  has  thus  achieved  more  than  mere 
smartness  or  ability,  who  no  longer  regards  the  world 
at-large  merely  with  the  cold  eye  of  personal  advan- 
tage, if  he  fortunately  possesses  the  other  requirements, 
may  feel  absolutely  sure  of  the  greatest  possible  suc- 
cess in  this  calling,  for  this  last-named  quality  finds 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     265 

immediate  response  in  the  heart  of  the  buyer.  The 
latter  at  once  senses  more  than  mere  perfunctory 
virtue  and  ability  in  the  atmosphere  surrounding  such 
a  personality.  He  senses  a  compelling  attraction,  a 
spiritual  magnetism,  which  may  always  be  predicated 
of  a  man  when  he  has  arrived  at  the  point  in  his  meta- 
physical growth  where  the  injunction  "that  ye  love 
one  another"  is  no  longer  to  him  an  empty  formula. 

ALLAN  C.  EMERY 

MEMBER  OF  THE  FIRM  OF  GOODHUE,  STUDLEY  AND 
EMERY,  WOOL  COMMISSION  MERCHANTS,  BOSTON, 

MASS. 

In  order  for  a  young  man  to  become  a  successful 
Salesman  he  should  first  of  all  have  a  thorough  train- 
ing of  the  goods  he  is  to  sell,  so  as  to  have  a  better 
knowledge,  if  possible,  of  the  goods  which  he  offers 
than  his  customers  have.  He  should  be  frank  and 
honest,  and  secure  his  customers'  confidence  by  repre- 
senting his  goods  fairly,  and  should  see  to  it  that  his 
deliveries  are  equal  to  sample.  "His  word  should  be 
as  good  as  his  bond."  He  should  study  his  man,  find 
out  his  needs,  and  see  that  he  has  what  the  buyer  wants 
when  in  the  market. 

He  should  not  be  small,  but  waive  little  points  and 
get  a  reputation  of  being  liberal.  In  every  possible 
way  he  should  try  to  please  his  customer,  —  "play  the 
long  game";  that  is,  he  should  so  use  a  customer  that 


266  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

one  sale  will  mean  many,  and  once  a  customer  is  se- 
cured, he  should  see  to  it  that  he  is  never  lost. 

When  the  young  man  makes  a  mistake,  he  should 
confess  it  quickly,  and  do  the  right  thing.  He  should 
avoid  useless  argument  and  remember  he  is  paid  to 
get  orders. 

He  should  work  hard  and  ceaselessly,  not  like  a 
way  train  that  makes  sudden  dashes  and  then  comes 
to  a  stop,  but  more  like  a  freight  train  that  is  con- 
tinually plugging  along,  not  fast,  but  keeping  ever- 
lastingly at  it. 

He  should  sell  when  a  customer  wants  to  buy,  and 
not  pass  him  up,  and  later  urge  him  to  buy  when  his 
wants  have  been  supplied.  When  he  is  thrown  down, 
he  should  bob  up  again  smilingly.  He  should  be  happy 
and  good-natured,  and  make  friends.  He  should  treat 
the  office  boy  right,  he  may  be  the  buyer  some  day. 

He  should  never  get  discouraged,  but  have  faith  in 
God  and  man  and  in  himself.  He  should  believe  in 
his  goods  and  in  his  house,  and  talk  them  up  with 
great  enthusiasm. 

He  should  cut  out  cigarettes;  the  odor  of  them  is 
offensive  to  many  men,  and  it  has  been  conclusively 
proven  that  they  seriously  injure  a  young  man's 
mental  ability.  He  should  cut  out  booze  and  other 
evils.  It  is  not  necessary  to  drink  to  effect  sales; 
on  the  contrary,  a  young  man  needs  to  have  his  body 
pure  and  his  mind  clear  and  alert  to  accomplish  the 
best  results.  It  is  easier  to  be  a  total  abstainer  than 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     267 

a  moderate  drinker.     He  should  always  be  ready  to 
sacrifice  pleasure  for  business,  instead  of  business  for 
pleasure,  which  is  so  often  done.  He  should  be  thorough, 
and  learn  to  concentrate  his  efforts  where  they  count. 
A  good  motto  to  have  is:  "I  can  if  I  will." 

ALBERT  BERREY 

CHIEF-SALES-MANAGER,  ISAAC  HAMBURGER  AND 
SONS,  MEN'S  CLOTHING,  BALTIMORE,  MD. 

"I  walked  four  blocks  out  of  my  way  to  come  to 
this  store  to  buy  a  fifty-cent  tie  because  you  wait  on 
me  so  well!" 

This  expression  I  overheard  while  standing  in  our 
neckwear  section  the  other  day,  and,  most  naturally, 
it  made  me  stir  and  study  the  cause.  The  sales-person 
to  whom  this  remark  was  addressed  was  a  master  of 
her  stock.  The  knowledge  this  person  possessed  of  the 
goods  coming  under  her  care  was  a  pleasure  to  behold, 
as  there  was  nothing  one  could  ask  her  for  that  she 
could  not  immediately  place  her  hands  on. 

After  nearly  twenty  years  of  hard-earned  experience, 
I  sum  successful  salesmanship  up  primarily  under  the 
heading:  "I  fully  understand  the  goods  I  handle." 

Be  a  salesman  ever  so  homely,  —  too  large  or  too 
small,  —  even  unfortunate  as  to  the  command  of  the 
English  language  and  possessed  of  many  other  faults, 
if  this  person  will  be  ambitious  enough  to  "fully  un- 
derstand the  goods  he  handles,"  his  success  is  assured. 


268  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

I  have  seen  busy  men  wait  many  minutes  for  a 
certain  sales-person  to  serve  them,  and  surely  for  no 
other  reason  than  that  sales-person  was  capable  of  ex- 
plaining in  details  the  whys  and  wherefores  of  the 
articles  in  question.  This  not  only  means  that  he  or 
she  could  tell  what  the  fabric  was,  which  article  would 
wear  better,  what  colors  would  blend  better;  but  the 
promptness  in  quickly  finding  a  desired  article  more 
than  compensated  for  the  possible  original  waiting  to 
be  served  by  a  particular  sales-person. 

There  is  a  decided  air  of  confidence  displayed  by 
people  who  "understand  the  goods  they  handle"  that 
makes  salesmanship  an  easy  matter,  but  beyond 
question  of  doubt  one  must  study  thoroughly  the 
stock  one  handles  and  be  able  to  converse  intelligently 
regarding  each  and  every  article  brought  forward. 

This  summary,  while  thus  far  written  of  the  retail 
sales-person,  holds  with  equal  force  regarding  the  whole- 
sale; in  fact,  even  to  a  greater  extent.  Wholesale 
salesmen  invariably  call  on  very  busy  people,  buyers 
whose  every  moment  is  seriously  occupied,  and  he  with 
knowledge  regarding  his  wares  is  he  that  wins  the 
prize. 

I  cannot  too  strongly  urge  upon  those  desiring  to  be 
good  salespeople: 

Study  your  goods. 

Learn  your  stock. 

Know  what  you  are  talking  about. 

And  do  not  trust  so  much  to  luck. 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     269 


THOMAS  S.  HALL 

SALES-MANAGER,  HAMILTON,  BROWN  SHOE  COMPANY, 
MANUFACTURERS  AND  DISTRIBUTERS  OF  BOOTS 
AND  SHOES,  ST.  Louis,  Mo. 

The  qualities  that  go  to  make  the  great  salesman 
are  not  different  from  those  necessary  to  the  making 
of  a  great  merchant.  There  is  an  inexorable  law 
governing  success  in  salesmanship  that  must  be  re- 
spected, and  this  is  the  same  law  that  governs  all  men 
who  are  really  great.  I  am  not  one  who  believes  in  its 
entirety  the  aphorism  that  salesmen  are  born.  True, 
we  have  different  qualities  of  mental  and  physical 
make-up  born  in  us,  but  the  man  of  average  mental 
and  physical  equipment  may  become  a  great  salesman 
by  using  as  a  basis  of  his  work  the  qualities  of  char- 
acter, energy,  and  perseverance.  These  constitute  the 
arch  of  success,  the  first  named  being  the  keystone. 
In  my  judgment,  it  is  difficult  for  any  man  to  be  a 
great  salesman  who  does  not  possess  the  first-named 
quality.  He  may  possess  the  qualities  of  energy  and 
perseverance  and  apply  them  vigorously,  yet  in  the 
noise  of  the  battle  he  can  never  be  heard,  for  the  rea- 
son that  his  lack  of  character  is  speaking  so  loud  the 
trade  cannot  hear  the  words  his  tongue  utters.  While, 
if  he  possesses  much  character,  every  word,  every  act, 
is  productive  of  results,  and  this  must  be  so  whether 


270  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

the  customer  will  or  not,  and  this  principle  must  ever 
be  true  so  long  as  men  live. 

My  experience  has  been  that  buyers  invariably  are 
attracted  to  the  big,  wholesome,  clean,  courageous 
man,  rather  than  to  the  weak,  boisterous,  unethical 
coward. 

The  most  influential  tongue  in  America,  to-day, 
attracts  attention,  not  altogether  because  of  the  words 
uttered,  for  its  possessor  is  not  an  orator,  but  because 
of  the  bold,  aggressive,  moral  force  behind  the  words 
which  burn  his  thoughts  into  his  hearers'  minds. 
These  virtues  are  the  same  as  are  being  sought  by 
the  large  business  houses,  knowing,  as  they  do,  that 
they  are  judged  by  the  character  of  their  representa- 
tion. Men  possessing  these  virtues  are  valuable  for 
the  reason  that  they  lift  a  house  onto  a  higher  plane 
than  could  be  reached,  save  by  the  presence  of  such 
men,  and  such  are  few,  not  because  of  physical  or 
mental  inefficiency,  but  because  they  do  not  respect 
the  law  of  success,  which  demands  they  shall  not  hear 
the  siren's  song,  shall  not  feel  the  heat  and  cold,  shall 
not  realize  the  dark  of  night,  shall  not  indulge  the 
fleeting  pleasures  of  life,  but  shall  concentrate  their 
minds  upon  their  work  until  they  burn  with  en- 
thusiasm. 

The  great  salesman  must  be  a  student  of  men,  and 
until  human  nature  changes  this  will  constantly  ex- 
cite his  mind,  for  each  day  he  will  come  in  contact 
with  a  disposition  new  to  him,  and  to  succeed  he  must 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     271 

be  trained  in  the  art  of  diplomacy,  never  for  a  moment 
forgetting: 

"How  sweet  and  gracious, 

Even  in  common  speech, 
Is  that  fine  sense 

Which  men  call  courtesy; 
Wholesome  as  air, 

Genial  as  light, 
Welcome  in  every  clime 

As  breath  of  flowers; 
It  transmutes  aliens 

Into  lasting  friends, 
And  gives  its  owner 

Transport  'round  the  globe." 


W.  A.  HAWKINS 

SUPERINTENDENT,  JORDAN,  MARSH  COMPANY, 
DEPARTMENT  STORE,  BOSTON,  MASS. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  FOWLER,  —  Your  favor  informing 
me  that  you  are  writing  a  book  on  salesmanship  duly 
received,  and  I  want  to  tell  you  how  glad  I  am  to 
know  that  you  realize  enough  the  importance  of  sales- 
manship to  write  a  book  about  it.  May  your  tribe 
increase ! 

Few  people  realize  the  importance  of  salesmanship. 
It  is  an  art.  I  would  gladly  add  dignity  to  it  by  list- 
ing it  among  the  professions,  if  you  please.  Perhaps 
more  discredit  has  been  cast  upon  this  profession  than 
upon  almost  any  other,  due  to  thousands  who  claim  to 
be  sales-people,  but  who  in  reality  are  not. 


272  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

There  is  much  "Quack"  salesmanship  in  the  world. 

It  is  an  encouraging  sign,  however,  that  people  like 
yourself  are  realizing  more  and  more  the  absolute 
necessity  of  a  thorough  training  in  order  to  become 
efficient  in  this  work. 

Perhaps  one  reason  why  many  people  have  given  so 
little  thought  to  the  great  importance  and  dignity  of 
salesmanship  is  that,  like  the  air  we  breathe  and  the 
sun  that  shines  upon  us,  it  is  so  common.  How  little 
there  is  in  the  world  into  which  salesmanship  does  not 
enter!  Did  you  ever  stop  to  think  of  that? 

A  beautiful  picture,  through  which  the  artist  ex- 
presses divine  beauty,  must  be  sold.  The  book, 
through  which  the  author  may  change  the  thought  of 
the  world,  must  be  sold  (and  how  hard  it  sometimes 
is,  artists  and  authors  can  tell  you),  just  the  same  as 
the  common  commodities  which  change  hands  in  the 
market  place. 

The  Jordan,  Marsh  Company,  intent  upon  improv- 
ing service  to  patrons  in  the  same  ratio  that  other 
things  are  progressing  to-day,  started  some  time  ago 
a  School  of  Salesmanship,  placing  their  best  talent  at 
the  disposal  of  the  school.  Old  and  new  employees  in 
the  store  are  given  instruction. 

It  is  my  custom  to  address  each  class  at  the  close  of 
the  term,  at  which  time  I  always  bring  out  a  point 
which  I  would  suggest  that  you  make  use  of  in  your 
book. 

My  method  is  as  follows: 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     273 

Assuming  a  serious  manner,  I  say  to  the  class : 

"As  you  are  about  to  enter  the  employ  of  the  Jordan, 
Marsh  Company,  there  is  one  very  important  thing 
that  you  should  know,  and  that  is,  who  is  the  boss  in 
this  store.  Now,  who  is  the  bossf"  I  ask,  pointing  to 
some  eager  student.  The  answer  usually  comes  back, 
"Why,  you  are."  I  reply,  with  emphasis,  "Oh,  no! 
I'm  not  the  boss."  Again  I  ask,  "Now,  who  is  the 
real  boss  in  this  store?"  All  are  intensely  interested 
now.  Positive  voices  in  chorus  now  proclaim  a  member 
of  the  firm  to  be  the  real  boss.  I  say  again: 

"Oh,  no!  He  is  not  the  boss.  The  boss  in  this  store 
is  the  customer.  It's  the  customer  that  you  and  I  are 
working  for.  It's  the  customer  that  you  and  I  are 
here  to  please.  It's  the  customer  who  pays  your 
wages  and  mine.  If  it  were  not  for  the  customer,  you 
and  I  would  be  looking  for  a  job,  and  we  might  not  get 
as  good  a  one  as  we  have  here. 

"Now,  if  you  are  sitting  behind  your  counter,  doing 
nothing,  and  you  see  me  coming,  don't  jump  up;  but 
if  you  see  the  customer,  the  boss,  coming,  jump!" 

This  line  of  argument  always  makes  a  strong  impres- 
sion, and  it  strikes  the  key-note  of  good  salesmanship, 
namely,  satisfactory  service  to  customers. 

Wishing  you  much  success  in  your  work,  I  remain, 
Very  truly  yours, 

W.  A.  HAWKINS. 


274  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 


BELLA  B.  BEAN 

PRINCIPAL  OF  THE  JORDAN,  MARSH  COMPANY 
SCHOOL  OF  SALESMANSHIP 

The  department  store  offers  the  sales-people  unusual 
opportunities  for  getting  a  great  deal  of  satisfaction 
from  the  work.  This  is  because  of  the  great  variety 
in  the  work.  The  huge,  modern  department  store  is 
a  world  in  miniature.  The  markets  of  all  countries  are 
scoured  for  the  best  kind  of  merchandise.  Almost 
every  conceivable  need  of  humanity  is  catered  to. 
Then,  again,  consider  the  variety  of  customers.  Noth- 
ing is  more  interesting  and  helpful  than  the  study  of 
human  nature,  and  what  greater  opportunity  could 
there  be  for  such  study  than  in  selling  merchandise  in 
a  department  store?  Every  customer  is  a  different 
study,  and  requires  different  treatment  in  order  to 
obtain  the  best  results. 

Under  the  circumstances,  what  line  of  business  could 
offer  a  greater  field  for  enthusiasm?  The  best  mer- 
chandise of  the  world  is  given  the  sales-people  to  sell. 
In  many  departments,  such  as  pictures,  laces,  furni- 
ture, china,  bric-a-brac,  rugs,  etc.,  the  highest  forms  of 
artistic  expression  are  shown. 

We  all,  to  some  extent,  have  a  sense  of  the  beautiful 
in  us,  and  it  would  be  strange  if  such  merchandise  did 
not  make  a  direct  appeal  to  us,  and  if  we  did  not  be- 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     275 

come  interested  and  enthusiastic  about  it.  The  same 
thing  applies  to  all  merchandise  in  the  store.  It  has 
different  prices,  different  styles,  different  materials, 
different  makes.  There  is  a  reason  for  each  difference 
in  price.  Styles  are  constantly  changing.  New  styles, 
popular  styles,  extreme  styles,  and  novelties  are  always 
coming  in  and  going  out.  Each  has  its  ear-marks,  its 
desirable  and  undesirable  qualities.  The  history  of 
the  production  and  manufacture  of  all  merchandise  is 
full  of  interest.  Different  materials  are  adapted  to 
different  uses  for  this,  that,  or  the  other  reason.  The 
range  of  valuable  and  interesting  information  about 
the  goods  in  each  department  is  without  limit,  and  all 
the  information  is  easily  within  our  reach,  if  we  are 
willing  to  acquire  it. 

A  careful  study  of  the  merchandise  in  a  department, 
comparison  of  different  materials  and  makes,  to  note 
the  points  of  difference,  the  reading  of  trade  journals, 
books  on  special  topics,  and  encyclopedia,  —  all  of 
which  are  readily  accessible  in  large  cities,  —  are 
some  ways  in  which  a  sales-person  can  become  a  store- 
house of  valuable  and  interesting  information  about 
the  goods  he  is  selling.  Moreover,  buyers  are  always 
glad  to  give  sales-people  the  benefit  of  their  long  ex- 
perience and  accurate  knowledge,  if  they  show  enough 
interest  and  enthusiasm  to  ask  for  it. 

A  customer  comes  to  your  department.  He  is  not 
antagonistic,  and  you  don't  deal  with  him  at  arm's 
length.  He  comes  to  buy,  and  he  is  glad  if  you  can 


276  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

satisfy  his  wants.  He  comes  very  often  also  for  in- 
formation about  the  merchandise,  and  is  always  pleased 
to  obtain  it.  You,  on  your  side,  have  the  best  mer- 
chandise that  can  be  procured,  sufficient  in  quantity 
and  variety  to  satisfy  any  reasonable  demand.  You 
have  the  utmost  confidence  in  the  goods  you  are  sell- 
ing. You  can  answer  all  questions  the  customer  may 
ask.  You  can  and  do  explain  the  different  kinds,  the 
reasons  for  the  different  prices,  why  some  kinds  are 
better  suited  than  others  for  particular  purposes. 
You  can  give  all  kinds  of  curious  and  interesting  facts 
about  the  merchandise.  You  size-up  the  customer, 
and  note  his  apparent  station  in  life,  his  age,  figure, 
complexion,  probable  taste,  etc.  You  adapt  your  tact, 
and  display  accordingly.  You  note  the  effect  that  is 
being  produced  on  him  by  the  different  kinds  of  mer- 
chandise shown.  You  can  judge  his  likes  and  dislikes. 
The  evident  enthusiasm  which  you  have  for  your 
work  is  infectious.  It  cannot  help  but  make  an  im- 
pression on  the  customer.  He  can  now  purchase  in- 
telligently. He  is  impressed  with  your  knowledge 
and  honest  enthusiasm,  and  relies  on  your  judgment. 
He  has  confidence  in  you,  and  shopping  to  him  is  no 
longer  a  drudgery,  but  becomes  a  pleasure.  Other 
customers  approach,  but  they  are  different  customers, 
of  different  manner  and  different  tastes.  You  notice 
the  difference,  and  adapt  yourself  accordingly.  But 
your  intelligent  knowledge  and  enthusiasm  always 
have  the  same  successful  result,  —  satisfied  customers 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     277 

who  invariably  seek  you  rather  than  the  dull,  indiffer- 
ent sales-person  in  the  same  department. 

Can  this  work,  with  all  its  variety  and  its  interest- 
ing features,  be  called  a  hardship?  Is  n't  it  a  fit  sub- 
ject for  enthusiasm?  And  is  n't  there  something 
radically  wrong  with  the  sales-person  who  is  so  blind 
to  the  possibilities  of  the  work  that  he  does  n't  seem 
interested  and  enthusiastic  about  it? 

I  have  mentioned  the  possibilities  of  the  work, 
which  of  themselves  should  arouse  enthusiasm  in  us. 
There  is  always  satisfaction  in  doing  work  in  the  best 
possible  way,  and  this  feeling  of  satisfaction  is  suffi- 
cient for  doing  work  well. 

But  there  is  another  possibility,  which  in  this  com- 
mercial age  makes  a  strong  appeal  to  most  of  us.  In- 
telligence and  enthusiasm,  which  make  first-class 
sales-people,  also  pave  the  way  for  more  important 
positions.  The  interest  in  our  work,  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  our  work  which  enthusiasm  creates,  are  just 
what  will  enable  us  to  rise  to  buyers'  positions.  Noth- 
ing else  is  necessary.  Sales-people  who  have  these 
qualities  are  too  valuable  to  the  store  to  remain  long 
as  sales-people.  A  department  store  can  always  get 
all  the  ordinary  sales-people  it  needs.  The  supply  is 
greater  than  the  demand.  But  a  department  store 
cannot  always  get  competent  persons  to  fill  the  more 
responsible  positions,  and  is  always  on  the  watch  for 
them. 


278  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 


JOHN  C.  JUHRING 

PRESIDENT,  FRANCIS  H.  LEGGETT  AND  COMPANY, 
IMPORTING  AND  MANUFACTURING  GROCERS,  NEW 
YORK  CITY. 

A  salesman  to  be  successful  must  have  some  natural 
qualifications,  plus  energy,  stick-at-it-iveness,  and 
tact,  combined  with  reliability.  He  must  understand 
his  business  thoroughly  and  be  able  to  talk  intelli- 
gently and  enthusiastically  about  his  bonds,  or  real 
estate,  or  merchandise,  or  whatever  he  sells.  Then,  if 
he  values  the  importance  of  presenting  a  good  ap- 
pearance, is  particular  as  to  his  habits,  and  realizes 
that  he  must  make  himself  profitable  to  his  employers 
as  well  as  guard  the  interests  of  a  prospective  cus- 
tomer, —  he  is  likely  to  reach  the  top  rung  of  the  ladder 
in  successful  salesmanship. 

In  our  weekly  meetings  we  try  to  impress  upon  our 
younger  or  junior  salesmen  the  importance  of  neat- 
ness in  dress,  as  well  as  personal  appearance  generally, 
of  never  entering  a  store  with  a  cigar  in  their  mouth, 
and  of  never  discussing  a  subject  other  than  business. 

We  also  endeavor  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  such 
new  salesmen  that  our  house  has  won  its  place  by  re- 
liability, and  by  never  misrepresenting  an  article' 
and  we  expect  them  to  follow  along  this  same  line. 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     279 


J.  WILLIAM  NAYLOR 

TRAVELING  SALESMAN,  THE  MENIHAN  COMPANY, 
SHOE  MAKERS  FOR  WOMEN,  ROCHESTER,  N.  Y.; 
PRESIDENT,  THE  SHOE  TRAVELERS'  ASSOCIATION 
OF  CHICAGO 

The  foundations  of  a  great  structure,  after  the  ex- 
cavations, are  very  unattractive,  and  yet  they  are  the 
vital  portion  of  the  building,  for  its  subsequent  archi- 
tectural beauty  and  adornment.  People  will  pass  by, 
but  not  until  the  attractive  points  are  forced  upon  the 
attention  of  the  public,  will  they  ever  be  spoken  of. 
But  who  would  build  without  a  good  foundation,  ex- 
cept a  Fool?  The  successful  business  man  must  build 
a  good  foundation,  or  else  his  business  will  crumble; 
and  this  follows  in  all  parts  of  life. 

There  is  a  science  to  salesmanship,  which  has  to  be 
worked  out,  which  is  necessary  and  essential  in  all 
parts  before  a  man  is  a  success. 

In  looking  back  for  the  requirements  of  a  good  sales- 
man, and  judging  by  those  now  living,  and  by  some 
who  have  passed  away,  I  can  recall  men  of  different 
temperaments,  of  entirely  different  ideas,  men  of 
different  political,  social,  and  religious  sympathies; 
and  they  were  all  equally  successful,  not  because  they 
sold  to  their  own  types,  but  because  they  could  count 
as  their  friends  and  patrons  men -of  the  opposite  type, 
because  they  had  certain  marks  in  their  natures  that 


280  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

stood  out  differently  from  other  men.  These  "  nature 
marks,"  as  we  may  call  them,  were  the  foundations. 
The  edifice  of  this  type  of  man  can  never  be  shaken. 
It  is  built  to  stay,  on  the  solid  rock. 

The  essentials  to  this  character  can  never  be  as- 
sumed or  copied.  They  do  not  belong  to  the  penitent; 
they  must  be  the  original,  which  can  never  be  counter- 
feited. I  should  place  them: 

First,  truthfulness.  There  are  usually  two  ways  of 
lying  in  business,  —  one  is  to  lie  audibly,  and  the 
other  is  to  keep  still  when  we  ought  to  tell  the  truth 
and  act  the  lie. 

It  sometimes  takes  nerve  to  tell  the  truth,  but  it 
always  wins  out. 

The  second  essential,  I  believe,  is  promptness.  So 
many  days  have  been  lost  to  a  salesman  by  the  tardi- 
ness of  buyers!  A  man  who  has  no  regard  for  prompt- 
ness is  already  a  failure,  and  there  is  no  excuse  for  a 
salesman's  being  tardy  because  somebody  else  is.  A 
salesman  should  regard  his  dates  the  same  as  catching 
a  train. 

I  believe  industry  should  fit  into  the  third  place.  To 
make  good  at  any  vocation,  we  have  got  to  work.  In 
this  age  of  hair-splitting  competition,  the  "race  is  to 
the  swift,"  and  the  man  who  gets  at  them  early  and 
late  is  a  sure  winner,  in  competition  with  the  man 
who  indulges  in  quantities  of  slumber,  if  he  has  the 
essentials. 

Cheerfulness   we  will   name   for   the  fourth   place. 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     281 

Were  you  ever  down,  away  down,  when  death  was 
almost  welcome?  A  somber  friend  calls,  and  you  have 
his  sympathy.  A  cheerful  friend  calls,  and  you  have 
his  inspiration. 

It  is  in  understanding  men  that  a  salesman  makes 
his  mark  in  life,  saying  the  right  thing  at  the  right 
time,  saying  nothing  when  there  is  nothing  to  say, 
being  aggressive  when  there  is  something  to  get,  stand- 
ing by  an  absent  friend,  —  all  these  come  into  a  sales- 
man's life. 

The  first  duty  a  salesman  owes  to  his  employer  is 
to  fully  understand  the  product  of  his  employer,  and 
then  sell  it  just  as  his  employer  would  sell  it. 

We  are  all  inclined  to  put  our  own  personality  into 
our  sales,  instead  of  putting  our  personality  into  our 
employer,  and,  through  him,  into  the  product.  A 
salesman  should  always  remember  that  he  is  the 
middleman  between  his  employer  and  his  customer, 
and  that  what  he  says  and  does  create  a  binding  in- 
fluence or  cause  a  breach. 

I  believe,  with  all  sincerity,  that  if  a  salesman  will 
stick  to  the  essentials,  he  cannot  help  being  a  success. 

GEORGE  H.  BARBOUR 

VICE-PRESIDENT     AND     GENERAL     MANAGER,     THE 
MICHIGAN  STOVE  COMPANY,  DETROIT,  MICHIGAN 

The  requisites  of  a  good  salesman,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  writer,  consist  largely  in  his  personality.  There 


282  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

are  other  requisites,  of  course,  but  one  taking  the 
position  of  salesman  and  representing  a  line  of  goods 
(I  care  not  in  what  particular  line)  must  have  a  cer- 
tain personality,  especially  if  he  is  a  stranger  to  the 
merchants  he  is  to  meet,  so  that  he  may  leave  the 
right  impression. 

I  am  one  who  believes,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent, 
that  the  qualifications  to  produce  a  good  salesman 
must  be  born  in  him,  the  same  as  the  talents  of  a  pro- 
fessional man,  such  as  a  musician  or  actor.  He  must 
feel  an  interest  and  like  his  work.  If  he  succeeds,  he 
must  leave  the  correct  impression  on  his  first  visit; 
and  if  he  fails  to  get  an  order,  this  impression  will  be 
lasting,  and  sooner  or  later  he  will  succeed  in  doing 
business  with  the  merchants  he  calls  on. 

He  must  at  all  times  represent  the  line  of  goods  he 
has  just  as  it  is,  so  that  when  the  merchant  receives 
the  goods  he  has  ordered  from  him,  he  will  find  them 
just  as  represented  and  fully  up  to  the  recommenda- 
tions made  by  him.  If  he  fails  in  this,  he  will  never 
succeed  in  continuing  business  relations  with  any 
merchant  to  whom  he  misrepresents. 

He  must  be  upright,  honest,  and  reliable  in  every 
respect,  and  the  success  of  the  salesman  must  be  along 
these  lines.  He  must,  at  the  same  time,  be  straight- 
forward with  the  firm  he  is  representing.  It  is  a  great 
mistake  for  him  to  become  too  extravagant  in  his 
expenditures.  I  do  not  believe  in  a  salesman  trying 
to  be  economical  by  stopping  at  cheap  hotels,  just  the 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     283 

reverse;  for  he  should  always  endeavor  to  assist  his 
business  by  stopping  at  the  leading  hotels;  he  should 
make  the  acquaintance  of  those  who  are  his  equal, 
and  those  representing  large  concerns,  men  who  are 
holding  high  positions  and  demanding  the  highest 
respect  of  the  merchants  with  whom  they  do  busi- 
ness. In  this  way  one  salesman  can  often  assist 
another. 

Another  very  important  point  for  the  salesman 
representing  any  concern  is  to  live  up  to  his  instruc- 
tions to  the  letter  of  the  law.  Many  houses  have  their 
own  ideas  as  to  the  way  their  goods  should  be  mar- 
keted, and  instruct  their  salesmen  along  these  lines; 
and  the  salesmen  should  carry  out  these  instructions 
to  the  letter  and  never  depart  from  them  unless  in 
their  experience  they  find  certain  conditions  can  be 
improved  by  so  doing,  and  then  they  should  explain 
them  to  the  house  they  represent. 

His  main  aim  should  be  to  succeed,  and  not  only 
benefit  himself,  but  the  firm  he  represents.  He  should 
take  sufficient  time  to  accommodate  the  convenience 
of  the  merchants  with  whom  he  expects  to  do  busi- 
ness; not  to  hurry  them  in  any  way,  but  arrange  his 
time  to  accommodate  that  of  the  buyer. 

There  is  one  thing  the  salesman  wants  to  do,  if  pos- 
sible, and  that  is  to  leave  just  the  right  impression, 
which  is  sure  to  give  him  the  preference,  so  that  when 
he  again  visits  the  town  the  merchant  will  await  his 
coming,  give  him  the  orders  and  a  preference  over 


284  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

other  salesmen.    This  is  a  strong  point,  and  one  that 
will  tell  in  the  end. 

I  have  endeavored,  in  a  condensed  form,  to  give  you 
some  ideas  on  this  subject.  I  could  go  into  details 
more  fully,  but  believe  I  have  said  sufficient  and  given 
sufficient  ground,  which,  if  followed  by  any  salesman, 
will  bring  success  to  him  if  he  has  the  natural  ability 
to  make  him  a  good  and  profitable  salesman. 

CHANDLER  W.  SMITH 

MANAGER,  WHOLESALE  DEPARTMENT,  HENRY  F. 
MILLER  AND  SONS  COMPANY,  PIANO  MANUFAC- 
TURERS, BOSTON,  MASS. 

In  starting  out  to  become  a  salesman  one  must  be 
honest  and  have  an  honesty  of  purpose  in  order  to  ac- 
quire REAL  SUCCESS. 

That  word  "Success"  is  a  broad  one,  and  is  inter- 
preted in  different  ways.  In  order  to  impress  the  im- 
portance of  this  firmly  upon  your  mind,  I  am  going  to 
give  you  an  illustration: 

Not  long  ago  I  was  visiting  a  large  Western  city,  and 
as  I  went  to  the  hotel  dining-room  for  my  breakfast,  I 
bought  a  morning  paper.  I  was  informed  that  it  was 
the  largest  and  most  reliable  of  all  the  papers  pub- 
lished in  that  city.  Prominent,  on  the  first  page,  was 
an  obituary  notice  of  a  man  who  had  been  the  manag- 
ing head  of  an  enormous  corporation,  and  enjoyed  the 
reputation  of  being  one  of  the  brightest  and  most  able 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     285 

men  that  our  country  possessed.  On  the  editorial  page 
of  that  paper  I  read  a  two-column  article  giving  the 
history  of  his  business  life.  The  article  gave  him  credit 
for  his  accumulation  of  many  millions  of  dollars,  and 
then  criticised  him  right  and  left  for  his  unfair  and 
unprincipled  business  methods. 

I  believe  that  article  voices  the  sentiment  of  every 
honest  person  who  was  familiar  with  the  business 
career  of  that  great  financier,  and  it  should  be  a  warn- 
ing to  you  and  stand  out  prominently  before  you  as  a 
danger  signal  labeled  " Failure!"  It  should  impress 
upon  your  mind  that  there  is  something  else  besides 
the  accumulation  of  the  Almighty  Dollar  to  constitute 
a  truly  successful  business  life. 

You  should  have  implicit  confidence  in  the  goods 
you  are  selling,  and  treat  your  customers  as  you  would 
like  to  be  treated  in  return.  You  should  study  human 
nature,  as  hardly  any  two  customers  can  be  handled 
successfully  by  the  same  method.  Obtain  the  confi- 
dence of  your  customers  by  taking  a  special  interest 
in  them.  Recommend  to  them  the  article  that  you 
yourself  know  will  be  the  most  satisfactory,  and  be  sure 
that  you  are  giving  your  customer  full  value  for  money 
received. 

You  should  be  courteous  and  polite  at  all  times  and 
under  all  circumstances,  and  if  possible  take  more 
pains  with  your  customers  after  the  sale  than  before. 
You  should  never  sell  an  article  for  a  higher  price  than 
it  is  marked  to  be  sold  for,  thinking  that  by  so  doing 


286  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

you  will  gain  the  good  will  of  your  employers.  If  you 
do,  and  your  employer  is  honest,  he  will  insist  that  you 
refund  to  your  defrauded  customer  the  full  amount  of 
the  over-charge,  and  inform  you,  with  emphasis,  that 
if  the  act  is  repeated  it  will  cost  you  your  position.  I 
know  of  no  truer  saying  than  the  following  quotation: 
"First  of  all  to  thine  own  self  be  true,  and  it  will 
surely  follow  as  the  night  the  day  thou  canst  not  then 
be  false  to  any  man." 

You  should  familiarize  yourself  with  the  qualities  of 
your  competitor's  goods,  but  never  speak  ill  of  your 
competitor  or  his  goods.  That  custom  is  too  often 
adopted,  and  the  result  is  like  the  gun  that  kicks  back- 
ward, does  more  harm  to  the  salesman  than  to  the 
competitor.  You  can  employ  every  moment  of  the 
time  that  your  customer  can  give  you  to  much  better 
advantage  by  explaining  the  merits  of  the  goods  you 
are  selling. 

Be  sure  your  customer  understands  fully  the  condi- 
tions of  the  sale.  If  interest  is  to  be  charged,  see  to  it 
that  your  customer  fully  understands  that  fact,  the 
rate  of  interest,  and  when  it  is  to  be  paid. 

Remember  that  there  is  nothing  more  annoying  to 
your  employer,  or  harmful,  in  fact,  than  to  have  a  dis- 
satisfied customer. 

I  have  only  submitted  a  few  fundamental  principles 
of  salesmanship.  If  what  I  have  said  will  be  of  any 
assistance  to  you,  my  efforts  will  not  have  been  in 
vain. 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     287 

In  closing,  I  want  to  impress  upon  your  mind  that 
"Truth  is  a  Divine  Attribute  and  the  Foundation  of 
Every  Virtue." 

HUMPHREY  O'SULLIVAN 

TREASURES,  O'SULLIVAN  RUBBER  HEEL  COMPANY; 
PROPRIETOR,  THE  MERRIMACK  CLOTHING,  LOW- 
ELL, MASS. 

You  ask  me  how  to  describe  the  ideal  salesman. 
The  ideal  salesman  meets  you  with  a  glad  hand,  if  he 
knows  you;  if  he  does  not  know  you,  he  greets  you, 
and  while  he  is  entertaining  you  in  conversation  he  is 
digging  through  your  mind,  —  who  you  are  and  what 
you  want. 

The  ideal  salesman!  To  be  a  salesman  to-day  means 
to  be  a  gentleman  first,  of  resourcefulness,  intelligence, 
and  tact;  and,  while  I  do  not  claim  any  of  those  ac- 
complishments, I  have  been  a  salesman  for  over  a 
quarter  of  a  century  and  I  know  whereof  I  speak. 

A  salesman!  In  my  estimation,  a  salesman  is  born 
and  not  educated.  Every  great  success  in  this  country 
represents  as  its  head  a  salesman.  If  he  were  not  a 
salesman,  the  firm  would  not  be  a  success. 

There  are  more  salesmen  in  name  than  in  fact.  All 
that  I  can  write  upon  the  subject  of  "Salesman- 
ship" is  to  tell  each  one  who  intends  to  be  a 
salesman: 

Throw  your  entire  heart  and  ambition  into  the  busi- 


288  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

ness  with  which  you  are  associated.  If  you  cannot  do 
that,  you  are  simply  a  machine. 

You  must  master  and  remember  every  article  that  is 
in  your  department.  If  you  are  "  classy/'  and  if  you 
really  understand  the  business  that  you  are  associated 
with,  you  will  have  to  sell  your  customer  the  highest 
class  of  goods  in  your  department,  because  of  the 
manner  in  which  you  describe  the  goods  and  the  in- 
terest you  show  to  your  customer.  Cheap  goods  sell 
themselves,  but  it  requires  a  salesman  to  sell  high-class 
goods. 

Salesmanship  consists,  first,  in  kindness,  honesty, 
and  politeness;  next,  in  making  the  customer  under- 
stand that  the  goods  that  you  have  for  sale  will  bene- 
fit him  to  own  them.  And  when  I  say  that,  it  tells  the 
whole  story  of  salesmanship,  in  advertising  or  selling. 
The  man,  who  does  not  carry  out  this  plan,  fails.  You 
need  to  make  the  other  fellow  think,  either  by  talk  or 
print,  that  you  have  something  that  it  would  benefit 
him  to  own. 

Selfishness!  Do  not  tell  him  that  you  want  him  to 
get  anything  because  you  want  to  sell  it,  but  tell  him 
that  he  should  buy  it  because  it  will  benefit  him  to 
own  it.  The  man  who  knows  his  stock,  and  has  his 
heart  in  his  business,  will  sell  the  goods;  but  he  must 
not  show  by  his  action  to  the  customer  that  he  wants 
to  sell,  that  he  is  hungry  to  sell.  His  cleverness  will 
come  in  by  making  the  customer  believe  that  he  ought 
to  own  what  he  has  for  sale. 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     289 

DAVID  M.  PARRY 

PRESIDENT,  PARRY  AUTO  COMPANY,  INDIANAPOLIS, 
IND.;  EX-PRESIDENT,  NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION  OF 
MANUFACTURERS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND 
THE  CARRIAGE  BUILDERS'  NATIONAL  ASSOCI- 
ATION 

There  was  a  time,  not  long  past,  when  the  "drum- 
mer" was  generally  accepted  as  a  common  rogue.  To- 
day he  must  be  a  gentleman  in  the  truest  sense.  Then 
he  swapped  drinks  and  hot  stories;  to-day  he  passes 
out  engraved  cards  and  discusses  the  psychology  of 
the  trade.  The  problem  now  before  him  is  that  of  a 
dual  existence,  a  sort  of  Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde  life 
confronting  him,  whichever  way  he  may  turn.  And, 
unless  he  is  blest  with  the  best  in  man's  makeup,  he  is 
doomed  to  a  double  role,  for  on  the  one  hand  he  pro- 
tects his  personal  interests  along  with  the  employer's, 
and  on  the  other  hand  he  protects  the  customer's  in- 
terests to  get  more  business. 

Now  you  can  see  how  impossible  it  is  to  fill  this  dual 
position  when  things  begin  to  conflict.  Everybody 
lied  whitely.  The  salesman  made  claims  for  his  goods 
that  were  based  more  on  eager  desire  than  on  fact. 
The  customer  begins  stretching  the  truth  from  the 
point  where  the  salesman  left  off,  and  in  the  Divine 
Law  of  Compensation  gets  everybody  into  trouble. 
Then  it  is  up  to  the  salesman  to  adjust  affairs  to  the 


290  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

satisfaction  of  the  employer  or  he  loses  his  job,  and  to 
the  satisfaction  of  the  customer  or  he  obtains  no  more 
orders.  And  the  devil  laughs  while  our  salesman  flips 
to  the  advisability  of  jumping  from  the  frying  pan. 

Right  here  I  want  to  suggest  the  substitution  of  the 
Truthful  Triangle  for  the  Square  Deal.  Place  the  em- 
ployer, the  salesman,  and  the  customer  on  the  points 
of  an  equilateral  triangle,  the  sides  of  which  shall  be 
bounded  by  lines  of  truth,  and  you  have  demonstrated 
the  only  methods  business  can  ever  follow.  Turn  the 
Truthful  Triangle  whichever  way  you  will,  and  you 
have  always  the  same  proportions.  The  salesman 
knows  for  certain  that  the  sides  which  support  him, 
one  leading  from  his  employer,  the  other  from  his  cus- 
tomer, are  equal  as  respects  Truth.  He  gives  out  his 
facts  accordingly. 

So  our  salesman  must  not  only  be  a  gentleman,  but 
he  must  be  a  veracious  one.  His  funny  stories  and  red 
bottles  are  mildewing  on  the  shelf  where  good  judg- 
ment had  grown  so  dusty.  Just  good,  honest  horse- 
sense  is  all  the  employer  wants.  My  experience  selling 
goods  on  the  road  soon  taught  me  that  before  I  could 
ever  succeed  I  must  have  ability  to  control  myself. 
One  customer  wants  to  take  a  drink  with  you,  another 
a  smoke;  this  one  desires  dinner  at  your  expense;  that 
one  a  theater  ticket.  Though  the  customer  expects  this 
as  his  due,  yet  the  employer  will  not  carry  this  extra 
expense,  while  the  salesman  cannot. 

I  soon  discovered  that  if  I  avoided  beginnings  there 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     291 

was  not  the  continual  worry.  "Habit  at  first  is  but  a 
silken  thread.  Beware!  that  thread  may  bind  you  as 
a  chain."  Habit,  little  by  little,  slyly  and  unper- 
ceived,  slips  in  the  foot  of  her  authority,  but  having 
established  it,  she  then  unmasks  a  furious  and  tyran- 
nic countenance  against  which  we  dare  not  raise  our 
eyes.  Providence  smiles  kindly  on  the  salesman  who 
guards  himself  and  his  employer  from  these  imposi- 
tions. You  see  the  customer  is  trying  to  spoil  our 
Triangle  by  acquiring  greater  length  to  the  side  he 
represents.  And  the  strength  of  figure  means,  "  To- 
gether we  succeed,  divided  we  fail." 

Now  I  have  piled  obligations  on  our  salesman  until 
he  is  an  honest  gentleman  of  habits.  He  is  paid  money 
to  hold  down  second  base  on  the  Truthful  Triangle, 
and  there  we  have  him  smiling  out  friendly  sunshine 
and  glowing  with  faith  in  his  goods. 

EDWARD  W.  POPE 

EX-TREASURER,  POPE  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY, 
"POPE-HARTFORD"  AUTOMOBILES  AND  "COLUM- 
BIA" BICYCLES,  HARTFORD,  CONN. 

The  question  is  often  asked,  Can  a  salesman  be  suc- 
cessful and  always  tell  the  truth?  Some  men  tell  the 
truth  because  it  is  right,  and,  therefore,  need  no  ad- 
vice. Others  think  it  sometimes  pays  better  not  to 
tell  it,  and  it  is  to  the  latter  class  that  I  appeal. 

My  experience  in  business  of  over  forty  years  has  en- 


292  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

abled  me  to  observe  many  instances  where  a  business 
house  has  built  up  a  reputation,  and  kept  it,  because 
it  would  not  allow  its  salesmen  to  deceive  their  cus- 
tomers. I  remember  discussing  the  matter  with  a 
man  who  admitted  that  he  deceived  his  customers.  I 
asked  him  if  he  thought  it  paid,  and  he  replied,  "Yes, 
I  think  it  does.  There  is  a  sucker  born  every  minute, 
and  I  can  find  plenty  of  them."  But  he  did  not  suc- 
ceed, for  his  customers  not  only  did  not  return,  but 
they  told  their  friends,  and  the  result  was  that  his 
trade  dropped  off  and  he  went  out  of  business. 

Another  very  common  mistake  is  to  run  down  your 
competitors'  goods.  If  you  cannot  speak  well  of  them, 
say  nothing.  Many  a  salesman  has  lost  his  customer 
by  doing  it,  as  the  average  man  believes  in  fair  play 
and  will  favor  the  "under  dog." 

Usually  a  salesman  must  make  his  customer's  ac- 
quaintance, and  sometimes  his  friendship,  before  he 
can  sell  him;  and  he  would  certainly  be  very  unwise  to 
resort  to  deception  and  thereby  lose  all  he  had  worked 
hard  to  gain. 

Methods  of  doing  business  have  changed  greatty 
since  the  department  stores  adopted  the  return  of 
goods  not  satisfactory.  This  plan  made  it  not  only 
unnecessary  to  deceive,  but  to  do  everything  possible  to 
satisfy  the  customer,  which,  of  course,  includes  telling 
the  exact  truth.  This  change  has  affected  many  other 
kinds  of  business. 

If  a  business  house  or  corporation  intended  to  make 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     293 

all  the  money  it  could  in  a  few  years,  and  then  go  out 
of  business,  it  might  pay  it  to  let  its  salesmen  mis- 
represent; but,  as  a  rule,  fortunes  in  business  take 
nearly  a  lifetime  to  build,  and,  in  the  long  run,  if  not 
in  the  short  one,  it  pays  to  be  truthful. 

If  the  manufacturer  is  truthful  through  his  manu- 
factured articles,  of  course  it  is  easy  for  the  salesmen 
to  be  truthful  in  selling  them.  If  the  manufacturer 
makes  a  dishonest  article,  then  the  salesman  should 
not  pledge  himself  to  sell  it. 

It  takes  a  long  time  to  make  a  reputation  for  a  man- 
ufactured article;  it  requires  constant  watchfulness  to 
keep  it;  and  it  is  very  easy  to  lose  it.  It  is  just  the 
same  with  a  salesman's  reputation. 

FRANK  S.  CHICK 

VICE-PRESIDENT,  THE  JOHN  H.  PRAY  AND  SONS  COM- 
PANY, WHOLESALERS  AND  RETAILERS  OF  CARPETS, 
BOSTON,  MASS. 

A  salesman's  best  asset  is  knowledge  of  human 
nature. 

The  great  salesman  is  an  even  balance  of  knowledge 
of  human  nature  and  of  his  business,  but,  of  the  two, 
the  former  is  the  more  important. 

Out  of  this  equipment,  and  two  good-sized  "Don'ts," 
salesmen  are  made. 

Don't  talk  too  much;  be  a  good  listener. 

Don't  make  mis-statements. 


294  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

Of  course,  I  presume  that  you  are  going  to  be  polite 
and  decent,  for  you  have  to  have  these  to  make  friends 
with  even  a  yellow  dog.  How  much  more  are  they 
necessary  when  you  have  something  "really  worth 
while"  in  hand? 

I  have  known  of  successful  salesmen  who  took  a 
drink  when  they  liked,  and  smoked  in  a  customer's 
face,  whether  the  customer  smoked  or  not;  but  I  have 
known  far  more  who  did  not,  and  somehow  or  other 
this  latter  class  are  about  longer  and  keep  out  of  the 
graveyard. 

It  is  about  all  summed  up  in  good  manners,  good- 
nature, and  good  sense. 

ROBERT  J.  MIX 

MANAGER,  ORDINARY  DEPARTMENT,  NEW  YORK  CITY 
OFFICE  OF  THE  PRUDENTIAL  INSURANCE  COMPANY 
OF  AMERICA 

That  the  salesman  should  be  thoroughly  familiar 
with  his  wares,  that  he  should  understand  human 
nature,  that  he  should  know  when  he  has  talked  enough, 
that  he  should  be  neat  and  cleanly  as  to  his  person,  — 
these  are  facts  that  are  patent  to  everybody.  The 
statements  are  axiomatic.  Therefore,  in  this  brief 
article,  let  us  take  higher  ground,  let  us  look  for  a 
moment  at  the  moral  side  of  "Salesmanship,"  for  no 
man  can  be  called  a  good  salesman  who  achieves 
temporary  success  at  the  expense  of  the  RIGHT. 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     295 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  reader 
should  agree  with  us  at  the  outset  that  the  ability  to 
dispose  of  a  large  quantity  of  goods  does  not  neces- 
sarily make  a  man  a  good  salesman. 

One  who  misrepresents  his  goods,  or  induces  his 
customer  to  purchase  under  a  misapprehension  of  the 
terms  of  the  sale,  is  not  a  good  salesman,  no  matter 
what  the  size  of  his  orders;  he's  a  bad  salesman,  and 
a  bad  salesman  is  not  only  an  undesirable  employee, 
but  he  is  a  most  objectionable  citizen,  for  he  tends  to 
undermine  that  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all 
good  salesmanship  and  real  prosperity,  namely,  public 
confidence.  One  salesman  who  has  sold  a  bill  of 
goods  through  the  practice  of  deceit  or  misrepresenta- 
tion of  any  kind  makes  trouble  for  all  the  good  and 
honest  salesmen  who  come  after  him. 

Goods  which  are  not  sold  on  their  merits  had 
better  never  have  been  sold  at  all,  for  the  sale  is  of  no 
ultimate  benefit  to  the  concern  that  the  salesman 
represents,  and  no  business  house  or  corporation  can 
afford  to  retain  in  its  employ  what  is  commonly  known 
as  a  " slick"  salesman,  one  who  resorts  to  trickery  of 
any  sort  with  customers. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  a  salesman  is  frequently 
confronted  with  the  temptation  to  take  advantage  of 
the  customer's  ignorance,  but  it  is  a  temptation  which 
must  be  resisted,  if  the  salesman  expects  to  make 
healthy  and  lasting  progress  in  his  vocation.  By  ad- 
hering rigidly  to  the  truth,  he  may  occasionally  lose 


296  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

a  sale;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  has  no  chickens 
coming  home  to  roost,  he  has  no  dissatisfied  customers. 
He  can  look  men  in  the  face,  conscious  of  his  integrity; 
he  will  gradually,  but  surely,  build  up  a  reputation  of 
the  right  sort,  a  reputation  for  reliability;  he  will  be 
known  as  a  man  whose  word  is  as  good  as  his  bond, 
and,  if  he  is  industrious,  he  may  feel  assured  of 
success. 

The  salesman  should  be  a  man  of  smiling  counte- 
nance and  a  kindly  heart.  Human  nature  loves  sun- 
shine, and  customers  like  to  trade  with  the  man  who 
wears  a  smile  and  who  breathes  the  spirit  of  geniality. 
Is  it  not  so  with  you,  reader?  Have  you  not  often 
visited  a  store  in  which  you  have  declined  the  proffered 
services  of  a  number  of  clerks  in  order  that  you  might 
be  waited  upon  by  a  particular  salesman  who  had  won 
you  over  by  his  painstaking,  good-natured  manner, 
and  by  the  apparent  truthfulness  of  all  his  statements? 
Of  course,  you  have,  and  if  this  is  true  of  you,  it  is 
true  of  others.  It  is  true  of  practically  all  of  us. 

A  good  salesman  will  never  make  slurring  remarks 
about  a  rival  concern,  nor  will  he  permit  himself  to 
sell  a  customer  more  goods  than  the  customer  needs. 
The  man  who  makes  either  of  these  mistakes  has  done 
more  harm  than  good  to  the  house  which  he  repre- 
sents, he  has  done  something  which  may  result  in  the 
loss  of  that  customer's  trade  for  future  years. 

Finally,  and  in  general,  honesty  in  the  broad  sense, 
honesty  of  purpose  as  well  as  honesty  in  practice,  is 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     297 

not  only  the  best  policy  for  the  salesman,  but  it  is  the 
only  policy  which  he  can  follow  if  he  expects  to  be- 
come a  "good"  salesman. 

P.  A.  BEST 

MANAGER,  SELFRIDGE  AND  COMPANY,  WHOLESALE 
AND  RETAIL  MERCHANTS,  LONDON,  ENGLAND 

Industry.  First  of  all  you  must  have  the  desire  to 
do  well;  you  must  bring  into  this  business  all  that  is 
best  in  your  home  training.  You  must  be  industrious, 
for  in  the  ideal  condition  that  I  am  imagining  there  is 
no  room  for  idle  people,  and  every  moment  that  is 
wasted  by  each  individual  is  a  great  loss  of  time  and 
opportunity. 

Honesty.  You  must  be  honest  in  all  that  you  do 
and  say,  scorning  to  be  untruthful,  having  far  too 
much  self-respect  to  be  dishonest  in  the  slightest  detail. 
It  is  dishonest  to  take  away  from  this  store,  or  to  use 
for  your  own  purpose,  without  permission,  the  least 
expensive  of  the  supplies  that  are  from  time  to  time 
provided  for  your  various  departments  or  sections  to 
wrap  merchandise  in  or  for  you  to  use  in  the  discharge 
of  your  duties.  The  pen  that  is  supplied  to  you  is  not 
your  own  property;  the  string  that  you  use  for  tying 
parcels  must  not  be  used  for  your  own  purposes.  All 
these  little  points  help  to  build  up  scrupulously  fine 
characters. 

Perseverance.    You   must   be   persevering,    and   al- 


298  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

though  it  may  be  difficult  for  you  to  accomplish  many 
things  that  you  set  out  to  do,  if  they  are  worth  accom- 
plishing, you  must  not  lay  them  aside  unfinished 
because  you  are  not  able  to  surmount  the  difficulties 
as  soon  as  you  would  wish.  The  putting  off  of  the 
completion  of  any  task  is  always  a  dangerous  thing  to 
do.  Do  not  procrastinate,  for  "  Procrastination  is  the 
thief  of  time";  but  the  qualifications  of  perseverance 
will  help  you  to  keep  trying  until  finally  you  must 
succeed  in  doing  that  which  you  are  attempting. 

Thoroughness.  You  must  be  thorough:  do  not 
handle  your  duties  in  a  light  manner;  do  not  be  con- 
tent with  surface  service,  —  i.  e.,  apparently  doing 
the  task  that  has  been  set  you,  —  for  this  is  not  suffi- 
cient. Do  it  in  such  a  way  that  you  know  it  cannot 
be  done  better,  —  that  is  being  thorough.  If  you 
have  received  instructions  how  to  perform  a  certain 
task,  endeavor  to  find  even  a  better  way  than  you 
have  been  told;  —  always  be  thinking  of  better  ways 
and  better  means  of  carrying  out  your  daily  work. 
This  is  the  cult  of  thoroughness,  and  will  be  one  of 
the  strongest  factors  in  your  business  success. 

Punctuality.  "  Punctuality  is  the  soul  of  business," 
for  the  care  and  forethought  which  make  you  careful 
to  be  punctual  are  the  very  essentials  that  will  carry 
you  through  other  duties.  If  the  morning  is  foggy, 
leave  home  that  much  earlier,  so  that  you  may  be 
able  to  catch  the  train  that  leaves  before  the  one  you 
usually  catch.  Abhor  excuses,  and  endeavor  to  be 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     299 

independent  of  even  climatic  conditions,  for  by  study- 
ing this  you  will  be  placing  yourself  under  self-disci- 
pline, which  will  make  the  more  serious  tasks  that  you 
will  have  to  face  when  you  get  older  very  much  easier 
to  accomplish. 

Courtesy.  Be  courteous,  for  there  is  nothing  that 
appeals  to  that  which  is  best  in  us  more  than  the 
courteous  and  kindly  treatment  we  receive  from  those 
associated  with  us  or  with  whom  we  come  in  contact. 
A  pleasant  smile,  a  kindly  manner,  will  often  win 
where  sterner  methods  fail.  It  is  good  for  each  in- 
dividual to  cultivate  this  attribute,  for  it  is  one  of 
those  that  in  the  practice  brings  as  much  gratification 
to  those  who  acquire  it  as  to  those  who  enjoy  its 
influence. 

Cleanliness.  It  is  hardly  necessary,  perhaps,  to 
remind  you  that  cleanliness  in  person  and  habits  goes 
hand  in  hand  with  the  characteristics  that  up  to  the 
present  time  I  have  enumerated  as  being  essential  to 
bring  about  an  ideal  condition  under  which  to  work. 

Loyalty.  Loyalty  is  the  groundwork  of  good  ser- 
vice, for  one  cannot  give  faithful  service  and  discharge 
those  obligations  that  every  one  undertakes  when  ac- 
cepting employment,  without  being  loyal.  Do  not 
talk  about  your  house  of  business  or  criticise  it  in  any 
manner,  except  you  do  so  in  the  interests  of  the  busi- 
ness and  to  those  whose  positions  of  authority  enable 
them  to  accept  and  deal  with  the  criticism  in  the 
manner  to  which  it  is  entitled.  The  business  demands 


300  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

from  you  that  same  loyalty  that  you  should  show 
towards  your  parents'  house.  If  you  were  to  see  in 
the  conduct  of  your  household  any  action  of  any  in- 
dividual member  that  was  displeasing  to  you,  you 
surely  would  not  speak  to  your  friends  or  neighbors 
and  criticise  this  fault,  you  would  immediately  go  to 
one  of  your  parents  and  make  a  criticism;  but  to 
make  this  to  those  not  connected  in  any  way  with 
your  home  would  be  an  act  of  disloyalty.  Therefore, 
the  same  applies  to  the  business  house,  for  this  is  your 
business  home,  and  as  long  as  you  accept  service  in  it, 
the  house  has  a  right  to  demand  from  you  unswerving 
loyalty. 

Imagination.  Another  characteristic  which,  if  prop- 
erly cultivated,  will  assist  to  make  an  ideal  con- 
dition possible,  is  the  cultivation  of  imagination. 
"  Imagination  sets  the  goal,  and  industry  and  per- 
severance are  the  stepping-stones  that  carry  us  towards 
it,"  and  so  set  your  goal  as  soon  as  you  commence  your 
business  life.  Do  not  be  afraid  of  aiming  too  high,  for 
as  sure  as  you  set  your  goal  so  will  you  endeavor  to 
find  ways  and  means  of  achieving  the  tasks  that  you 
have  laid  before  you.  Let  every  one  look  to  the  highest 
places  on  the  management,  and  then  let  it  be  his  daily 
endeavor  to  so  conduct  himself  in  the  discharge  of  his 
duties  that  he  may  be  gradually  laying  the  foundation 
stones  on  which  ultimately  to  build  a  successful  busi- 
ness career  whose  final  goal  at  least  shall  be  the  best 
post  that  the  house  can  offer  him.  Imagination  finds 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     301 

new  and  better  ways  of  doing  things.  If  you  cultivate 
the  habit  of  thinking,  your  imagination  is  its  nearest 
partner.  Be  constantly  thinking  of  some  new  way  of 
using  the  systems  of  the  house.  Try  to  imagine  an- 
other method  for  charging  up  merchandise  other  than 
the  sales-book.  Who  knows  but  that  it  may  fall  to 
you  to  revolutionize  what  is  to-day  the  most  important 
item  in  the  transaction  of  any  retail  business,  the  use 
of  the  sales-book;  but  unless  you  exercise  your  im- 
agination, and  are  constantly  thinking  how  much 
better  you  could  do  things,  you  will  not  be  likely  to 
achieve  this  desired  distinction. 

Discipline.  I  would  like  to  emphasize  the  necessity 
of  strict  discipline  being  maintained  by  all  ranks,  —  in 
any  organization  and  in  any  sphere  whatsoever,  —  for 
not  only  is  it  necessary  that  discipline,  which  means 
unhesitating  obedience  to  those  in  authority  over  us, 
faithfully  discharging  all  orders  and  instructions  re- 
ceived, respect  of  rules  and  regulations  and  strict 
obedience  to  same,  but  there  is  a  discipline  thrust 
upon  us  by  Nature,  the  respect  of  which  means  health, 
for  even  with  our  own  bodies  we  cannot  ignore  the 
laws  of  Nature  which  urge  us  to  be  obedient  to  its 
discipline,  and  whatever  part  of  Nature  we  look  to 
we  find  the  same  discipline  is  insisted  upon,  and  any 
breach  of  this  always  brings  ultimately  its  automatic 
punishment:  therefore,  in  a  business  it  is  vitally  nec- 
essary to  its  well-being  that  all  members  should  readily 
maintain  the  chain  of  discipline  from  the  highest  down 


302  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

to  the  lowest.  I,  myself,  have  never  forgotten  the 
twelve  months. that  I  was  privileged  to  be  under  the 
discipline  of  the  regular  army  in  South  Africa,  and  I 
can  fully  appreciate  that  without  discipline  an  army 
would  become  a  rabble,  —  useless  for  attack  or  de- 
fense. There  is  nothing  unmanly  in  the  implicit 
obedience  that  the  discipline  of  the  army  insisted  upon 
from  me,  because  I  appreciated  its  necessity;  and  so 
I  wish  you  to  appreciate  the  absolute  necessity  of  your 
maintaining  strictly  and  unhesitatingly  the  discipline 
of  the  house. 

Personality.  Personality  is  an  influence  exercised 
by  one  individual  over  his  fellow  creatures.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  define,  yet  it  is  easily  felt.  It  is  the  effect  upon 
our  minds  of  an  individuality  that  appeals,  attracts, 
and  exercises  an  indescribable  influence.  Let  me  use 
the  life  of  individuals,  who  possess  this  charm  of  per- 
sonality, who  are  known  to  you  if  not  by  sight  at 
least  by  reputation,  people  of  whom  you  have  read  if 
not  seen.  Let  us  take  the  personality  of  our  late  King: 
the  influence  that  he  wielded  was  the  influence  for 
peace.  He  was  not  aggressive;  he  was  called  by  our 
friends  in  the  United  States  the  First  Gentleman  in 
Europe.  He  won  for  our  Empire  treaties  and  peaceful 
relations  with  Great  Powers,  that  in  my  opinion  will 
be  before  long  mighty  factors  in  retaining  for  us  the 
proud  possessions  that  we  hold  to-day.  At  a  time 
when  the  French  nation  and  ourselves  were  in  no  way 
on  a  friendly  footing,  King  Edward  went  to  Paris, 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     303 

and,  by  his  wonderful  personality,  the  charm  of  his 
temperament,  paved  the  way  to  what  very  soon  after- 
wards became  a  complete  and  friendly  understanding 
between  the  two  nations. 

Now  think  what  it  would  mean  if  every  one  con- 
nected with  our  house,  by  the  close  study  of  these 
attributes  that  I  have  set  forth,  by  honest  endeavor 
and  determination  to  take  the  fullest  advantage  of  his 
opportunities  to-day,  were  to  build  up  each  his  own 
individual  personality!  We  should  have  an  organiza- 
tion that  would  indeed  become  a  national  institution. 


R.  A.  WALKER 

SALES-MANAGER,  A.  SHUMAN  AND  COMPANY,  MANU- 
FACTURERS AND  RETAILERS  OF  CLOTHING,  BOSTON, 

MASS. 

The  fatal  obstacle  which  bars  thousands  of  retail 
salesmen  from  advancement  and  large  success  is  the 
deadening  rut  of  commonplace  daily  habit,  both 
physical  and  mental. 

The  man  who  falls  into  a  rut,  without  the  grit  and 
stamina  to  force  himself  out,  is  surely  doomed.  He 
not  only  becomes  machine-like  in  his  thought  and 
action,  but  eventually  narrows  his  mental  horizon  until 
it  is  bounded  by  the  closing  bell  and  the  weekly  pay 
envelope. 

Thus  he  entirely  loses  the  ability  even  to  form  the 


304  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

mental  picture  of  success  which  must  precede  the 
actual  performance. 

Every  retail  salesman  worthy  of  the  name  does 
certain  important  things: 

He  studies  his  stocks  and  keeps  them  in  perfect 
order. 

He  is  courteous  to  his  customers,  while  using  all 
legitimate  means  to  make  every  possible  sale. 

He  is  regular  in  his  hours  and  careful  in  all  details  of 
his  work. 

But  these  things,  excellent  in  themselves,  will  never 
give  him  the  high  unusual  success  we  all  desire,  —  for 
if  he  is  content  with  simply  doing  the  usual  things 
well,  he  is  in  danger  of  being  benumbed  by  daily 
custom  and  of  slipping  into  the  rut  of  daily  habit. 

To  keep  out  of  the  rut  he  must  do  the  unusual 
things : 

He  must  strive  for  originality. 

He  must  suggest,  if  possible,  improvements  of  meth- 
ods, new  arrangements  of  stocks  and  departments. 

He  must  make  all  hours  business  hours;  doing  per- 
sonal missionary  work  continually  to  increase  his  list 
of  customers. 

He  must  take  infinite  pains. 

For  example,  —  if  he  has  definitely  promised  to  de- 
liver goods  at  a  certain  hour,  the  man  who  is  keeping 
out  of  the  rut  will  personally  make  sure  that  those 
goods  leave  the  shipping  room  as  promised. 

There  are  a  thousand  and  one  differences  of  this 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     305 

kind  between  the  unusual  man  and  the  good  routine 
man,  and  the  salesman  who  successfully  strives  to  lift 
himself  above  the  ordinary,  and  to  keep  himself  out 
of  the  rut,  will  reap  the  resulting  benefit  just  as  surely 
as  light  follows  darkness. 

P.   V.   BUNN 

MANAGER,  MAIL  SERVICE  DEPARTMENT,  JOHN  WANA- 
MAKER,  DEPARTMENT  STORE,  NEW  YORK  CITY 

The  word  "  Salesmanship  "  has  been  written  so  many 
times,  and  by  so  many  pens,  that  I  hesitate  to  comply 
with  your  request  to  tell  you  what  it  means  to  me. 
When  I  got  your  letter  I  pulled  out  Volume  "S"  of 
the  Century  Dictionary  as  a  starter,  and  I  was  sur- 
prised to  find  no  mention  of  the  word  in  that  book! 
On  the  other  hand,  dozens  of  writers  have  told  what 
salesmanship  is  and  how  it  may  be  acquired. 

But  the  more  I  hear,  and  see,  and  read  of  salesman- 
ship, the  more  I  feel  that  hearing,  and  seeing,  and 
reading  of  it  will  never  create  it. 

Now,  treatises  covering  the  details  of  salesmanship 
are  good  things,  but  the  student  should  remember  that 
he  can  never  make  a  salesman  of  himself  by  any  in- 
structions from  the  outside  unless  the  real  desire  and 
determination  to  do  so  have  been  created  within  him- 
self, and  by  himself,  and  for  himself;  and  if  a  man  has 
well  and  truly  done  that,  he  will  need  mighty  few 
written  rules  to  go  by.  It  depends  so  much,  —  as  in 


306  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

most  every  activity  in  life,  —  on  that  sixth  sense,  that 
Grasp,  which  only  one  in  ten  seems  to  possess. 

Take  a  counter  salesman  in  a  big  store,  for  instance: 
Did  you  ever  go  to  the  same  counter  three  times  with- 
out knowing  thereafter  just  which  salesman  you  pre- 
ferred to  have  wait  on  you?  And  yet  the  selected  one 
may  have  seen  the  least  service  of  any.  But  he  started 
right;  he  was  personally  anxious  to  please  you,  —  he 
was  glad  to  see  you;  he  had  looked  forward  to  your 
coming,  and  had  prepared  himself  for  it.  He  had  learned 
more  about  his  stock  in  three  months  than  some  of  his 
mates  ever  would  learn.  And  if  you  asked  a  question 
that  he  could  not  answer,  he  showed  real  solicitude 
about  it;  he  let  you  feel  that  it  was  a  proper  question 
to  ask,  and  he  hurried  to  the  aisleman  and  got  the 
information;  and  you  went  away  feeling  a  warm  glow 
in  your  heart  for  the  way  he  had  treated  you,  and  a 
resolve  to  trade  with  no  one  but  him  at  that  counter 
in  the  future.  And,  to-day,  you  would  walk  ten  blocks 
out  of  your  way  to  deal  with  that  salesman. 

The  point  I  am  making  is  this:  That  clerk  had  more 
Real  Salesmanship  in  his  cosmos,  without  ever  having 
heard  the  word  defined,  than  the  majority  of  the  ex- 
perienced ones,  even  though  they  may  have  learned 
"by  heart"  all  printed  or  written  rules  on  the 
subject. 

Our  man  started  right  by  longing  to  be  a  success,  and 
with  the  knowledge  that  the  customer  must  be  pleased, 
and  satisfied,  and  gratified. 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     307 

Salesmanship  means  the  art  or  science  of  convincing 
another  that  it  would  be  to  his  interest  to  exchange  his 
money  for  whatever  commodity  the  salesman  has  to 
sell.  ' 

The  qualities  that  make  the  salesman  deal  with  you 
in  a  way  that  gratifies  you,  all  combine  to  make  the 
salesman's  Personality;  that  is  the  one  word  that  best 
defines  the  true  basis  of  salesmanship.  But  that  word 
means  so  much;  it  means  Tact,  Gentleness,  Sympathy, 
Interest,  Enthusiasm,  and  Intelligence,  all  coupled 
with  Good  Business  Common  Sense.  But  if  you  are 
unfortunate  enough  not  to  have  a  goodly  share  of  those 
qualities,  you  will  never  be  a  real  salesman;  in  which 
event,  if  you  insist  on  being  a  salesman  anyway,  you 
will  have  to  fall  back  on  the  written  rules  as  your  sole 
equipment. 

After  we  agree,  then,  on  what  must  be  the  basis  of 
success,  no  harm  can  come  from  studying  the  details 
of  language  and  gesture,  and  certain  psychological 
principles,  which  will  give  finish  or  polish  where  they 
would  fail  to  create. 

A  good  actor  must  study  his  "business,"  even  after 
having  demonstrated  that  he  has  the  personality  neces- 
sary to  be  a  good  actor;  but  the  "business"  alone  would 
make  him  a  very  poor  actor. 

When  we  get  into  the  field  of  these  details,  there  are 
thousands  of  them.  But  the  most  important  thing 
to  learn  is  never  to  try  to  sell  a  thing  that  you  do  not 
believe  in  yourself,  because  Sincerity  is  bound  to  be 


308  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

felt.  Without  it  you  lose  your  own  self-respect,  then 
your  confidence,  and  then  your  success. 

In  the  next  place  learn  that  even  a  crank  can 
keep  on  talking,  but  that  it  is  the  wise  man  who  knows 
when  to  stop. 

The  salesman  who  can  so  adjust  himself  as  to  be 
able  to  hang  on  to  his  "prospect"  to  the  finish,  with- 
out boring  or  making  him  mad,  is  bound  to  succeed. 


GEORGE  C.  WARREN 

PRESIDENT,  WARREN  BROTHERS  COMPANY,  CONTRAC- 
TORS  OF  THE   "BlTULITHIC   PAVEMENT,"   BOSTON, 

MASS. 

NOTE.  —  Although  Mr.  Warren's  article  appears  to  refer  largely  to  the 
selling  of  pavements,  it  covers  in  reality  the  entire  field  of  selling  commodities 
to  towns,  cities,  counties,  and  states,  —  a  class  of  business  which  has  assumed 
enormous  proportions  and  is  growing  very  rapidly.  What  Mr.  Warren  says 
about  pavements  applies  to  almost  everything  sold  to  other  than  business 
houses. 

There  are  few  commodities,  the  successful  selling  of 
which  requires  more  high-class  representation,  more 
sound  business  judgment,  and  more  varied  qualifica- 
tions than  street  pavements.  Each  customer  is  the 
whole  taxpaying  public  of  a  municipality,  with  all  the 
varied  opinions  its  members  hold. 

The  successful  salesman  should  not  only  thoroughly 
know  his  own  pavement  but  the  various  competitive 
pavements.  He  should  have  sufficient  knowledge  of 
engineering  and  municipal  contract  law  to  be  able, 
as  he  is  often  required,  to  advise  municipal  engineers, 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     309 

attorneys,  and  other  officials,  to  the  end  that  all  proceed- 
ings shall  be  in  strict  accordance  with  the  law  and  best 
practice. 

Contrary  to  what  the  writer  believes  to  be  the  popu- 
lar idea  on  the  subject,  there  are  few  lines  of  business 
in  which  competition  is  more  keen  and  in  which  the 
salesman  has  a  better  opportunity  to  display  his  genius 
and  exercise  his  mental  activities.  He  should  have  a 
generally  pleasing  address  and  be  able  to  converse 
understandingly  on  general  topics  of  the  day  and  to 
meet  men  and  women  in  high  as  well  as  low  stations 
in  life  and  to  be  "at  home"  with  all.  He  should  be  able 
to  intelligently  converse  with  the  individual  or  address 
a  public  meeting  in  a  manner  which  carries  conviction 
with  what  he  has  to  say. 

All  pavements  have  merit.  Most  pavements  have 
some  features  in  which  they  excel  all  others.  All 
things  considered,  some  are  best  for  some  conditions 
of  traffic  and  other  physical  conditions,  and  others  best 
for  other  conditions.  It  is  a  part  of  the  essential  duties 
of  the  salesman  to  quickly  perceive  the  conditions  and 
determine  whether  or  not  his  pavement  is  most  suit- 
able for  any  particular  case  and  be  as  frank  in  advising 
that  another  pavement  be  used  if  better  adapted  for 
the  street  as  he  is  insistent  that  his  pavement  will  give 
the  most  satisfaction  under  conditions  for  which  it  is 
best  adapted.  Intelligent  consideration  and  prompt 
action  on  the  part  of  the  salesman  on  this  important 
point  avoids  getting  himself  and  employer  committed 


310  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

to  undesirable  propositions.  Salesmen  are  apt  to  feel 
when  they  frankly  acknowledge  that  a  pavement  is 
not  best  for  any  condition  that  the  public  and  com- 
petitions will  seize  on  that  as  an  acknowledgment  of 
general  inferiority.  In  the  writer's  judgment  and  ex- 
perience frankness  in  such,  as  in  other  matters,  yields 
the  best  results  in  the  long  run. 

To  enable  him  to  answer  argument  and  intelligently 
answer  questions,  the  salesman  should  be  familiar 
with  the  merits,  demerits,  and  history  of  all  kinds  of 
pavement  and  paving  materials,  and  while  vigorously 
presenting  the  merits  of  his  own  material,  he  should  be 
careful  not  to  exaggerate  and  over-state  them,  and 
equally  careful  to  be  fair  to  his  competitors'  wares. 
Above  all,  he  should  avoid  "knocking"  or  unduly  re- 
ferring to  the  misfortunes  of  a  competitor.  Uniform 
perfection  in  any  engineering  construction  is  impos- 
sible, and  when,  as  they  often  do,  salesmen  have  more 
to  say  against  a  competitor's  than  about  their  own 
product,  they  generally  create  a  lack  of  confidence  in 
the  minds  of  the  customers,  who,  as  a  rule,  do  not  care 
to  hear  what  a  salesman  has  to  say  against  a  competitor. 

A  part  of  the  qualifications  of  the  successful  salesman 
is  to  have  a  general  knowledge  of  the  laws  and  customs 
in  other  cities  and  to  advise  what  form  of  law  and 
method  of  assessment  is  best  and  safest.  It  frequently 
happens  in  cities,  which  have  not  done  paving  before, 
that  either  the  city  attorney,  engineer,  or  other  official 
starts  something  irregular  in  the  form  of  proceedings, 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     311 

assessment,  specifications,  or  contract,  which,  if  con- 
summated, would  endanger  the  legality  of  the  whole 
proceedings  and  contract.  The  salesman  must  know 
what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong,  and  then,  most  dip- 
lomatically, call  attention  to  the  error  and  advise  how 
to  correct  it.  He  must  know  enough  of  finance  to  be 
able  to  intelligently  advise  the  taxpayers  and  officials 
how  to  proceed,  —  how  other  cities  do  it. 

The  salesman  should  studiously  keep  out  of  partisan 
politics.  He  needs  the  friendship  of  all,  and,  even  under 
the  enticement  of  temporary  advantage,  should  avoid 
making  enemies  for  the  future  by  becoming  a  partisan 
in  politics. 

If  the  salesman  represents  a  bituminous  pavement, 
he  must  know  sufficient  of  the  chemical  constituents 
and  physical  properties  of  bitumen,  both  as  to  his  own 
and  that  of  his  competitors,  to  intelligently  represent 
his  material. 

The  best  thought  in  street  construction  of  the  last 
seventeen  years  (the  life  of  patents)  is  generally  rep- 
resented by  patents.  If  the  salesman  happens  to  rep- 
resent a  patented  pavement,  he  must  have  a  generally 
correct  knowledge  of  the  fundamental  principles  of 
patent  law,  and  also  of  municipal  law  with  respect  to 
its  application  to  patented  articles  in  connection  with 
the  general  laws  regarding  competition. 

In  many  places  payments  to  paving  contractors  are 
made  in  municipal  bonds  or  assessment  liens.  When 
contracts  provide  for  cash  payment,  the  ability  of  the 


312  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

municipality  to  meet  its  obligation  often  depends  on 
the  salability  of  its  bonds.  A  first-class  salesman, 
therefore,  should  have  added  to  his  other  accomplish- 
ments a  good  knowledge  of  finance  and  real  estate 
values  and  should  investigate  these  matters  to  the  end 
that  he  does  not  load  his  employer  with  a  lot  of  un- 
salable securities  or  contracts  on  which  he  cannot 
realize  the  contract  price. 

As  stated  above,  few  businesses  are  subjected  to 
more  keen  and  aggressive  competition  than  the  street- 
paving  business.  This  may  not  be  so  as  to  any  particu- 
lar kind  of  pavement,  but  all  kinds  of  pavements  are 
sharp  competitors  of  each  other.  The  representatives 
of  all  are  keen  for  the  business,  —  a  condition  which 
necessarily  regulates  the  prices  and  quality  of  workman- 
ship. Except  in  very  extraordinary  cases,  one  cannot 
get  an  exorbitant  profit  for  his  work,  and  if  he  attempts 
to  do  so  he  will  find  his  competitors  "on  the  job"  with 
another  kind  of  pavement,  perhaps  not  so  good  but 
answering  the  same  general  purpose  at  so  much  lower 
price  that  the  exorbitant  profit  man  will  find  him- 
self "in  the  cold." 

The  salesman  should  not  only  be  able  to  advise  on 
matters  referred  to  above  leading  up  to  the  construc- 
tion of  pavements,  including  the  materials  to  be  used; 
laying  out  of  the  street,  including  lawns,  parkways, 
shade  trees,  etc.;  but  also  how  to  care  for  the  pave- 
ments, —  how  to  economically  clean  and  repair  them, 
after  they  are  laid.  He  should  be  well  read  and  up-to- 


THE  VOICE  OF  SELLING  EXPERIENCE     313 

date  on  all  matters  pertaining  to  his  and  his  competi- 
tor's business  and  able  to  hold  his  own  in  any  public 
or  private  argument  on  the  subject. 

Finally  he  should  be  a  "hail  fellow  well  met,"  always 
sober,  industrious,  and  economical,  but  not  penurious 
in  his  expenses.  When  a  salesman  is  noticed  to  be 
extravagant  in  his  expenses  and  mode  of  living,  the 
public  quickly  reaches  the  conclusion  that  the  profits 
of  the  business  must  be  excessive,  however  erroneous 
the  conclusion  may  be  and  however  difficult  it  may  be 
for  his  employer  to  meet  the  expenses  out  of  the  reve- 
nues from  the  business. 

F.  P.  SEYMOUR 

SALES-MANAGER,  L.  E.  WATERMAN  COMPANY,  MANU- 
FACTURERS OF  FOUNTAIN  PENS,  NEW  YORK  CITY 

Advertising  has  lessened  "the  strength  of  the  cry" 
from  the  drummer  of  old  to  the  salesman  of  to-day. 
In  the  process  of  standardizing  products  of  manu- 
facture salesmen  also  have  become  standardized. 

The  successful  salesman  of  to-day  must  be  a  well- 
read,  forceful,  honest,  polished  man,  who  can  meet 
intelligent  dealers  on  the  basis  of  assisting  them  to 
increase  their  annual  business.  "Ways  and  means 
salesmen,"  or  those  with  the  creative  force,  have  taken 
the  place  of  the  drummer,  who  formed  his  acquaintance 
with  a  dealer,  supplied  his  merchandise  at  the  highest 
price  possible,  shipped  it  into  his  dealer's  store,  and  then 


314  PRACTICAL  SALESMANSHIP 

left  him  stranded  to  dispose  of  his  stock  to  the  best  of 
his  ability. 

Price  standardization  has  left  little  opportunity  for 
salesmen  to  supply  goods  at  more  favorable  prices  than 
might  be  first  quoted.  With  the  purchase  price  and  the 
retail  selling  price  regulated,  the  margin  of  profit  is 
established,  as  is  done  with  the  leading  staple  lines  of 
to-day.  The  salesman's  effort  comes  extensively  to 
the  front,  then,  to  make  the  dealer's  business  sufficiently 
large  to  afford  a  desirable  trade  on  a  fixed  profit. 

Advertising  has  regenerated  salesmanship,  but  has 
not  minimized  the  importance  of  the  selling  department. 

We  look  for  greater  changes  in  the  era  of  salesman- 
ship in  the  next  decade  than  in  the  last. 


INDEX 


ACADEMIC   Education   of   the 

Salesman,  The,  231 
Acquainted  with  the  Customer, 

Getting,  103 

Advising  the  Customer,  157 
Afraid  of  Yourself,  162 
Agents,  Book,  226 
Ainsley,  John  R.,  241 
Antagonizing  the  Customer,  97 
Appearance,  Personal,  108 
Approaching  the  Customer,  77 

B ARBOUR,  George  H.,  281 

Bean,  Delia  B.,  274 

Being  Afraid  of  Yourself,  162 

Bennett,  March  G.,  251 

Berrey,  Albert,  267 

Berrien,  James  G.,  254 

Best,  P.  A.,  297 

Book  Agents  and  Canvassers, 

226 

Browning,  C.  A.,  &  Co.,  242 
Browning,  King  &  Co.,  246 
Bunn,  P.  V.,  305 
Burpee,  W.  Atlee,  248 
Business,  Modesty  in,  137 
Business  Punctuality,  201 
Business,    What   to   Do   out- 
side of,  206 

CABOT,  Samuel,  251 
Canvassers  and  Book  Agents, 

226 
Carriage    Builders'     National 

Association,  289 
Chances,  Taking,  117 
Chick,  Frank  S.,  293 
Cobb,  Bates  &  Yerxa  Co.,  253 


Collier's  Weekly,  254 
Competitors,  Your,  165 
Conduct,  Personal,  172 
Confidence,  187 
Conservatism      and      Taking 

Chances,  117 

Counter  Salesman,  The,  44 
Courtesy  and  Politeness,  140 
Customer,  Advising  the,  157 
Customer,    Antagonizing   the, 

97 
Customer,    Approaching    the, 

77 

Customer,  Diagnosing  the,  38 
Customer,  Getting  Acquainted 

with  the,  103 

Customer,  Satisfying  the,  70 
Customer,  Treating  the,  179 

DECATUR,  Austin  H.,  258 
Decatur  &  Hopkins  Co.,  258 
Dependence  hi  Selling,  182 
Diagnosing  the  Customer,  38 
Diversion,  220 
Doing  What  You  do  not  Have 

to  Do,  124 
Drummer,  The,  56 

EDUCATION,  The  Academic 
Education  of  the  Salesman, 
231 

Emery,  Allan  C.,  265 
Employee  and  Employer,  85 
Employer  and  Employee,  85 
Employer,  Respect  Your,  121 
Exercise  and  Recreation,  220 
Experience,  The  Voice  of  Sell- 
ing, 240 


316 


INDEX 


FARLEY,  Harvey  &  Co.,  260 
Fault-Finder,  The,  127 
Fear,  162 
Forcing  a  Sale,  82 
Frost,  George,  Co.,  262 

GETTING  Acquainted  with  the 

Customer,  103 
Goodhue,   Studley  &  Emery, 

265 

Good  Nature  in  Selling,  113 
Goods,    Knowing    Something 

besides  Your,  33 
Goods,  Knowing  Your,  25 

HABITS,  172 

Hall,  Thomas  S.,  269 

Hamburger,    Isaac,    &    Sons, 

267 
Hamilton,    Brown    Shoe    Co., 

269 

Hawkins,  W.  A.,  271 
Hill,  Frank  E.,  246 
Howard,  Fred  L.,  242 
Humor    and    Wit    in    Selling, 

217 

INDEPENDENCE  in  Selling,  182 
Individuality  in  Selling,  197 
Inside  Salesman,  The,  44 
Interest,  Taking  an,  175 
Irritability  in  Selling,  167 

JORDAN,  Marsh  Co.,  271-274 
Juhring,  John  C.,  278 

KNOCKER,  The,  127 
Knowing    Something    besides 

Your  Goods,  33 
Knowing  Your  Goods,  25 

LEGGETT,  Francis  H.,  &  Co., 

278 

MENIHAN  Co.,  279 
Merrimack  Clothing  Co.,  287 
Methods  of  Others,  191 


Michigan  Stove  Co.,  281 
Miller,  Henry  F.,  &  Sons  Co., 

284 

Mix,  Robert  J.,  294 
Modesty  in  Selling,  137 

NATIONAL  Association  of  Man- 
ufacturers of  the  United 
States,  289 

Naylor,  J.  William,  279 

ORIGINALITY  in  Selling  153 
O'Sullivan,  Humphrey,  287 
O'Sullivan  Rubber  Heel  Co., 

287 

Others'  Methods,  191 
Outside  of  Business,  What  to 

Do,  206 

PARRY  Auto  Co.,  289 
Parry,  David  M.,  289 
Persistency,  147 
Personal  Appearance,  108 
Personal  Habits,  172 
Personality  in  Business,  197 
Pickhardt,  Emile,  262 
Play,  220 

Politeness  and  Courtesy,  140 
Pope,  Edward  W.,  291 
Pope  Manufacturing  Co.,  291 
Pray,  John  H.,  &  Sons  Co., 

293 
Prudential    Insurance    Co.    of 

America,  294 

Psychology  of  Selling,  The,  10 
Punctuality  hi  Business,  201 

READ,  What  to,  212 
Recreation  and  Exercise,  220 
Respect  Your  Employer  121 

SALE,  Forcing  a,  82  ^ 
Salesman,    Academic    Educa- 
tion of  the,  231 
Salesman,  The  Counter,  44 
Salesman,  The  Inside,  44 
Salesman,  The  Store,  44 


INDEX 


317 


Salesman,  The  Traveling,  56 
Salesmanship,  What  is,  1 
Salesmanship,  What  It  Offers, 

21 

Satisfying  the  Customer,  70 
Seaver,  Herbert  M.,  253 
Self-Confidence  in  Selling,  187 
Selfridge  &  Co.,  297 
Selling  Experience,  The  Voice 

of,  240 

Selling,  Good  Nature  in,  113 
Selling,  Independence  in,  182 
Selling,  Individuality  in,  197 
Selling,  Irritability  in,  167 
Selling,  Modesty  in,  137 
Selling,  Originality  in,  153 
Selling,     Self-Confidence     in, 

187 
Selling,    The    Psychology    of, 

19 
Selling,   Wit   and  Humor  in, 

217 

Selling,  Voice  in,  204 
Seymour,  F.  P.,  313 
Shoe    Travelers'    Association, 

279 

Shuman,  A.,  &  Co.,  303 
Something       besides       Your 

Goods,  33 

Smith,  Chandler  W.,  284 
Stick-to-it-iveness,  147 
Store  Salesman,  The,  44 
Studying     Others'     Methods, 

191 


TAKING  an  Interest  in  Your 

Work,  175 

Taking  Chances,  117 
Telling  the  Truth,  131 
Traveling  Salesman,  The,  56 
Treating  the  Customer,  179 
Truth,  Telling  the,  131 
Tucker,  Fred  H.,  260 

VOICE  in  Selling,  204 
Voice   of   Selling   Experience, 
The,  240 

WALKER,  R.  A.,  303 
Wanamaker,  John,  305 
Warren  Brothers  Co.,  308 
Warren,  George  C.,  308 
Waterman,  L.  E.,  &  Co.,  313 
What  Is  Salesmanship,  1 
What  Salesmanship  Offers,  21 
What  to  Do  outside  of  Busi- 
ness, 206 

What  to  Read,  212 
What  You   do   not  Have  to 

Do,  124 
Wit    and    Humor    in    Selling, 

217 

Working  for  Yourself,  92 
Work,  Taking  an  Interest  in, 
175 

YOUR  Competitors,  165 
Yourself,  Afraid  of,  162 
Yourself,  Working  for,  92 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


JUN  28    IS55 

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25Nov*525§  A 

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SEP  1  3  1956 

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THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  LIBRARY 


